Zeraim from the Book of Ruth by Leroy Osmon

Zeraim from the Book of Ruth by Leroy Osmon. Performed by the Tennessee Tech Univ. Music Faculty. Solo soprano saxophone, Phil Barham, mezzo soprano, Diane Pulte, Conductor, Joseph Hermann. This work received a Pulitzer Prize Nomination in 2008. Zeraim (Hebrew for seeds) is dedicated to Ronnie Beth Bush and her husband Daniel Ninburg of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico and is published by RBC Publications of San Antonio, Texas.

Text:
Turn back, turn back, turn back. Turn back, each of you, to her mother's house.
May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
May the Lord grant that each of you find security in the house of a husband.
And she kissed them farewell.
They broke into weeping and said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people."
Turn back, my daughters! Why should you go with me?
Have I any more sons in my body who might be husbands for you?
Turn back, my daughters! For I am too old to be married.
Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I were married tonight and I also bore sons,
Should you wait for them to grow up? Should you on their account debar yourself from marriage?
Oh no, my daughters!
My lot is far more bitter than yours for the hand of the Lord has struck out against me.
They broke into weeping again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law farewell.
But Ruth clung to her; so she said, "See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods.
Go, follow your sister-in-law."
Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you.
For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
Where you die I will die and there I will be buried.
Thus and more, may the Lord do to me if anything but death parts me from you.

Photos 1, 2 and 3 of composer Leroy Osmon. Photo 4 is composer Osmon with violist Nikolay Dimitrov. The last photos in the composers home in front of a mural by artist Miguel Rivero.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Yucatan
• Greg Danner horn
• Roger Martin flute
• Anne Thurmond bass clarinet
• Eric Willie percusion

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