Ruth: A Narrative Poem with Music (1992)

“Who is this woman?” says Boaz, “who gleams in my fields, whose youthful fineness cannot be seen to fit the condition of those who must gleam, in rags, in poverty?” The search for an answer to this question which embraces universal values is at its core of a prose-poem by James Forsyth and heightened by the music by Franz Waxman.

Opening with a broad and expressive melody played by oboes, two soprano saxophones and an organ and supported by the full orchestra, its closing moments are taken up by the violin.

A ram’s horn is heard and the composer suggests a muted soprano trumpet in the event the instrument is not available. This horn call ushers in a new, sweeping melody in the strings which appears several times during the course of the piece and can be identified with Ruth.

Boaz learns that Ruth is the daughter-in-law of Naomi and the widow of Naomi’s son who was killed in the strife between Moab and Judea. Through Elimelich, Naomi’s husband. Boaz understands that they are related. As Boaz observes Ruth gleaming in his fields, he says, “in me, amidst my golden riches, fate sowed the seeds of love where hate had long been the harvest between Moab and us here in Judea.” To these words we hear this expressive melody in the bass oboe and then taken up by violin I against the counter melody in violin II.

Looking at Ruth “standing barefoot there in rags, yet resplendent in womanhood,” Naomi understands why Boaz had shown her such favor in letting her gleam among the sheaves. She seeks Boaz out since she knows, as he does, the law that “the nearest of kin must take to wife the widow of his dead kinsman. Thus does the line of life continue in us and the great dance of tribal time goes on.” To these forceful words the first theme returns in a solo violin and is followed by a clarinet solo against a pulsating rhythmic support in the strings building to a moment of great intensity.

Naomi tells Boaz of Ruth’s loyalty when she was driven out of Moab by grief and need. How she stood weeping and said, “Whither thou goest I shall go.” Expressive opening chords in muted violins appear and are followed by Ruth’s theme played by a solo violin over an expressive contrapuntal dialogue with a solo viola. The opening chords reappear and close the section.

Boaz, asleep after the harvest feast and then awakened by the rising moon, finds Ruth lying on the threshing floor at his feet. Boaz understands that she will not be the one to ask him “the traditional question for betrothal between woman and man” in his country. She asks instead, “Is it in truth your wish to cover me with the skirts of your robe?” And he replies, “I am not young. Yet you have shunned the young men, maybe for the same reason that I am distrustful of many men and women too. But you I trust…Ruth of Moab. I, Boaz a Jew, adore you; and, in love, wish to take you, adored one, to be my wife.” With these moving words we hear the melody played by the flutes and then followed by the string section playing the melody and closing with a highly expressive melody by a solo cello supported by the strings.

But Boaz, a man of the law, struggles within himself. He knows that a kinsman holds prior claim to Ruth. Naomi storming at Boaz, asks if “he would dare to risk the loss of Ruth and the ruin of his and the lives of us both and for a mere legality!” These forceful musical statements set the framework first in the strings and then in the woodwinds.

And then this kinsman thought again and understood he would lose his inheritance if he redeemed Ruth as his wife. “And so the Dance of Time decided to do a new dance…all at the marriage of Boaz and Ruth!” It opens with Ruth’s theme and leads into a cello solo followed by this serene theme played in the English horn, bassoon and French horns.

And finally, over high sustained strings, we hear the call of the ram’s horn. The piece closes with these words, “So Boaz begat Obed, who begat Jesse, who begat great David the King. But deep, deep in the strain was the grace and the beauty which made Boaz begin to wonder at the wonder of life till he knew, who was this woman…Ruth.”

— Arnold Freed

The Scottish playwright James Forsyth, was born on March 3, 1913, in Glasgow and received his training at the Glasgow School of Art. He was the first playwright-in-residence at the Old Vic, where he became the protégé of Tyrone Guthrie, Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier, and Michael St. Denis. His career included plays about historical figures such as Tolstoy and Napoleon and fictional characters such as the monster Trog. During his career he wrote ten more plays for television and 18 for BBC Radio. Among his greatest international successes wereThe Other Heart, Heloise, and Emmanuel. He died on February 16, 2005, in West Sussex, England.

Forsyth first collaborated with Franz Waxman in writing the libretto for his unfinished opera Dr. Jekyll. Their next project was the oratorio Joshua, then The Spirit of St. Louis Suite and Ruth.