By BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff Writer Wednesday, April 11, 2007

enlarge Staff photo by Jeff Pouland

Music professor Steven Pane leads the production ``Car Life: A Traffic Jam Session for Automobile Orchestra'' at the University of Maine at Farmington on Tuesday evening. Flags were used to communicate with directors in four parking lots.

enlarge Staff photo by Jeff Pouland

Lee Sharkey of Vienna recites ``Big Cars,'' a poem by Wesley McNair, during the production ``Car Life: A Traffic Jam Session for Automobile Orchestra'' at the University of Maine at Farmington on Tuesday evening.

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"This is the largest instrument I have ever played," Robbins chuckled as he got out of his car Tuesday evening in a parking lot at the University of Maine at Farmington. Robbins was part of the first performance of the orchestral composition, "Car Life: A Traffic Jam Session for Automobile Orchestra," written by UMF music professor Philip Carlsen.

"Car Life" was performed by about 45 cars and their drivers -- UMF faculty, students and community members. The concert was held across three campus parking lots to inaugurate Arts Night -- part of the Michael D. Wilson Symposium Day that was created to celebrate student achievement and creativity.

Carlsen's automotive orchestra used subtle and not-so-subtle harmonies, cascading and alternating a cacophony of horns, radios, warning beepers, revving engines, slamming car doors and human voices. It was all part of an eight-page, detailed musical score that had drivers keeping one hand on the wheel and the other on the radio dial, ignition key or door handle, anxious to honk their horn at the requisite times and blast WKTJ or WUMF at just the right moment.

The result was a whirl of sounds that cascaded from one parking lot to another with conductor Steven Pane, a UMF professor of music, orchestrating the ensemble, keeping the tempo up and moving the action along, measure by measure, according to Carlsen's score.

The noises were made with the cars in park and the engines off, unless the action involved revving an engine.

UMF senior Ben Prentiss of Industry, a music major, sat behind the wheel in his mud-splattered pickup truck with his friend, Grace Hilmer, who clutched the score and did her best to make sure they followed the directions. Moving through nearly 50 actions, from slamming the door to honking the horn 47 times in quick, light taps-- the pair kept busy.

"This is a lot of fun. I've used car sounds before in my music and this sort of inspires me to do more," Prentiss said after the performance. "Any time a whole bunch of people come together around music is great," he said, looking around at the several hundred people who encircled the parking lots to see and hear the concert.

Part of the score directed the drivers to get out, stand by their cars and read, in loud and expressive voices and at their own pace, the poem, "Big Cars," by Mercer poet Wesley McNair. The voices melded to become a flowing, murmuring sound that reverberated across the lots.

Carlsen, who was unable to conduct the orchestra because of a back injury, on Monday in an interview said he has composed pieces before that use instruments from other cultures as well as ones he built himself that create unusual sounds.

"You become aware of all the possibilities of the sources of sound. It comes from the composer John Cage -- any sound-making device can be used to create a piece of music," he said. "Think about the different sounds you can make with cars and with many cars placed in different antiphonal locations that create a caller response."

"The big part of this was the logistics, finding the simplest way to coordinate all these cars," he said.

Arts Night was the creation of the UMF Ministry of Experimental Arts, a group of students, faculty and staff who created the opening celebration to Symposium Day.

Today, student presentations were to be made on original research, creative performances and artwork in venues around campus. Arts Night events included visual and performing arts presentations throughout the evening with food catered by symposium's sponsors, Michael and Susan Angelides.

The couple donated the gift in memory of their good friend, Michael Wilson, who graduated from UMF in 1976 with a degree in special education and died in an accident the following year as he prepared to begin a new teaching position in a small town in Aroostook County.

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com