Nothing beats a good poem set to a good tune: Vikram Seth

The wordsmith’s done it again, and this time without the need for “strained purses and spraining of wrists,” as he wrote in the epigraph of his mammoth A Suitable Boy. The four libretti (text for an extended musical work like opera, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical theatre) which make up his latest offering, The Rivered Earth, run into barely 110 pages.

The libretti, ‘Songs in Time of War’, ‘Shared Ground’, ‘The Traveller’ and ‘Seven Elements’, draw inspiration from various literatures in different languages, blending translation and original writing, and are written to accompany music by Alec Roth. Vikram Seth, of course, also includes an account of the pleasures and pains of working with a composer and a musician. He spoke to DNA about how his experience of putting together The Rivered Earth. Excerpts:

You are deeply into music. Does this guide your choice of form for what you want to write?
While it is true that I sing German lieder, especially Schubert, and play the cello and a bit of the Indian flute, I really can’t say myself whether my sense of music is all that great, or how much that helped. I would say that my understanding of music let me use it more fully in An Equal Music. In The Rivered Earth, it was making me aware of how much I could explore this territory.

Does your familiarity with so many languages and cultures make your work easy?
It does, to an extent. My knowledge of Hindi, Urdu, Welsh, German, French and Mandarin has helped open up doors. English for me is merely an instrument which I use to explore how these diverse languages and their cultures interface with the world outside.

Can you talk about the four libretti and why you chose those themes?
The character of the banks of a river changes all through its course till it finally meets the sea. Yet the river is the central unifying essence of that journey. The first libretto revolves around war-ridden China of the 8th century, when the poet Du Fu was in full form. In the second libretto, I have tried to revisit the English poet George Herbert’s work. I live in the house in Salisbury where he died and there has always been a strange melancholic quiet about the place. I have tried to bring that into the work. 
The next libretto borrows from the four I Vedic stages of life: Brahmacharya, Grihasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa, while the last one is a nod at the elements to which we all return in death.

You have also written about your interactions with composer Alec Roth. Was it a way of getting back at him?
Not at all. We respect each other far too much for anything like that. True, the discussions would often get intense but when you work together you learn to keep your ego out of it. Alec did disagree with the first draft of ‘Fire’. He said it was too literary for a musical and asked me to revise it. I thought he was being fussy and tried to convince him when he said I must go get a drink. And that’s exactly what I went and did. No wonder ‘Fire’ is such departure from any of my work. Alec’s crazy music score has no doubt added to the madness. (Laughs)

Between word and music, which is more important to you?
Words combined with music have a tremendous impact. Good poetry set to bad music may work for a while but it will not have the longevity of a good poem set to a good tune. Take the music of some of the old Hindi films. They still strike a chord with audiences.

You’ve bought George Herbert’s heritage house in Salisbury. How much of that inspired you?
The fact that I called that work ‘Shared Ground’ explains the inspiration. I’d merely gone to see the house of a poet whose work I admire a lot. Though I essentially love living among people in cities, there was a certain melancholic charm in the house surrounded by woodlands and a river running nearby. It turned out to be a good decision to buy the house as it helped with my work.