An Anatomy of the World for voice and six instrumentalists, on texts by John Donne

by Garcia, Federico

The musical piece An Anatomy of the World, on texts extracted from John Donnes First Anniversary (1611), is discussed in this accompanying essay, with an emphasis on technical-analytical terms, but also with a history of its composition. The choice of the text and a variety of compositional issues and concerns, link the analysis of An Anatomy to the previous musical output of the author, such as the expansion of a primordial melody into a complete piece, and the handling of duration-proportions between sections following concepts like the Golden Section. The analysis follows chronologically the unfolding of the piece, and is divided into two main sections, according to two enunciations of the text by the singer. Important melodies, contrapuntal sections, and other sources of musical material and discourse, are quoted as figures to point out relevant details, while always keeping a constant and consistent reference to the actual score of the piece. General threads developing throughout the piece are identified and characterized, and the relationship between the text and the music, not always obvious, is addressed from several standpoints.