The Clockmaker’s Doll is inspired by motherhood, black holes and poetry composed for MIAT present.. It is part of a series of songs for Megan Ihnen including One Voice with viola (2016) and White Ash with bassoon (2019). It premiered April 7, 2019 with Alan Theisen and was inspired by Rebecca Morgan Frank’s poem Descartes Daughter.
Duration: 5:30
Descartes’ Daughter, by Rebecca Morgan Frank
Descartes is said to have rebuilt his dead
daughter as a doll, a vessel for his grief
when she died at only five years old–
you can recreate such tiny dimensions,
even make the body move: mold
hollow ears to speak to, comb her hair,
locks made out of the real thing.
It isn’t at odds with his Treatise on Man,
how all of our bodies are machines
functioning not unlike the clock,
with its counterweights, its wheels.
When Descartes packed his doll daughter
and set sail to Sweden, you can imagine
the captain’s surprise when he opened
the wooden box: he threw this soul-
less girl-body overboard, while Descartes’
own death remains contested–
An arsenic-laced wafer? A tumor?
Pneumonia? You might ask
what sort of maker sets up so many
possibilities of destruction, but consider
the clockmaker’s job: to look for rust
and wear or whether a human just
spilled wine or knocked the clock over.
You’ll have to go elsewhere for philosophies
of bodies in motion, the collision of two
machines and what to do if one or both
of them have a soul. Those who bought
and signed Descartes’ skull wanted to claim
what it had housed, his remains now no
different than a metal head riddled
with graffiti. Still, it’s not hard to imagine
him alive, cradling the automaton daughter
in his cabin, begging his god to give back
the soul to the machine he had made.
Press:
- Mara Gibson is a composer possessing inexhaustible imagination, sensitivity, and collaborative spirit. Her composition for us, The Clockmaker’s Doll, is an integral part of our touring theatrical recital Black Meridian; we simply cannot imagine that program without Mara’s emotionally powerful contribution. She is a generous asset and ally to any institution, partnership, commission, colleague, student, performer, friend, or organization associated with her. Megan Ihnen & Alan Theisen present… (June 15, 2020), New Orleans, LA