Book description
The Rivered Earth
contains four effervescent libretti written by Vikram Seth to be set to
music by Alec Roth - together with an account of the pleasures and pains
of working with a composer.
Entitled 'Songs in Time of War', 'Shared Ground', 'The Traveller' and
'Seven Elements', they take us all over the world - from Chinese and
Indian poetry to the beauty and quietness of the Salisbury house where
the poet George Herbert lived and died.
Spanning centuries of creativity and humanity, these poems pulse with
life, energy and inspired brilliance.
They are accompanied by four pieces of calligraphy by Vikram Seth, who
also captured the ethereally beautiful photograph of his Salisbury
garden for the book cover.
Signum Classics has released two CDs of the music written to accompany
The Rivered Earth
, entitled Shared Ground
and Songs in Time of War
. Both recordings feature the violinist Philippe Honor and Birmingham's
Ex Cathedra choir.
Praise for Vikram Seth
'The best writer of his generation' The Times
'Such writing reminds us that there are secrets beyond technique,
beyond style, which have to do with a quality of soul on the part of the
writer, a giving of oneself' Guardian
'A phenomenon, a prodigy, a marvel . . . It is hard to believe that
Seth is only one man' Evening Standard
Equally gifted as a poet, essayist, memoirist, travel writer and
novelist, Vikram Seth is perhaps best known for his phenomenal A
Suitable Boy
and is currently working on a sequel to be published in 2013, A
Suitable Girl
. He has published three other novels - An Equal Music
, The Golden Gate
and Two Lives
. He has released several poetry collections - Mappings
, The Humble Administrator's Garden
, All You Who Sleep Tonight
, Beastly Tales
, Three Chinese Poets
and The Frog and the Nightingale
. Seth is the winner of the 1994 Commonwealth Writers Prize for A
Suitable Boy
, the 1985 Asia Commonwealth Poetry Prize and in 2007 was awarded the
Padma Shri in Literature and Education. Equally gifted as a poet,
essayist, memoirist, travel writer and novelist, Vikram Seth is perhaps
best known for his phenomenal A Suitable Boy
, one of the best loved and most widely read novels of recent times. His
other books include An Equal Music
, The Golden Gate
and Two Lives
.
