An intense work for string quartet and solo soprano with words by Kathleen Raine, to whom the work is dedicated. The piece was commissioned by the Wets Cork Chamber Music Festival, and was first performed in July 1999 in Cork, Ireland, by the Vanbrugh String Orchestra and Patricia Rozario (soprano).
Quoting Tavener: The World for string quartet and soprano solo should be performed at maximum intensity throughout. White hot, white cold, intensely, loud, intensely soft, almost unbearable, that which is nowhere and everywhere, not human but divine - theanthropic.