Oh You Robot Saints!

For one or two sopranos and piano. Duration - 18-20 minutes.

These poems, by my colleague and friend Rebecca Morgan Frank, explore “automatons” – essentially clockwork robots – and what they tell us about who we are as creators and humans. Some automatons take the form of holy objects, saints and monks. Others amuse us, or memorialize those we’ve lost. Still others are “false,” with a person stuffed inside the machine is actually at the controls. These machines raise questions about ourselves: how can we revere something man-made as holy? Why create “perfect” versions of ourselves? How do we use our creativity to make our lives and memories permanent and tangible in a temporary existence?

I. Creation
II. Virgen de los Reyes Automaton, 13th Century
III. The Mechanical Eves
IV. False Automaton
V. Restorations