UbuWeb Sound Comparison

Ant Farm, "CarMen"

A three act, 15-minute opera. The piece begins with dialogue stating, "Gentlemen, start your wipers" and then proceeds into the musical intro featuring car horns. There is a harmonic quality, but sounds almost chaotic, and certainly isn't soothing. Act 2 begins with "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines" and this section of the opera features the sounds of engines starting and revving. This more rhythmic section contrasts with the previous section of harmonic horns. Act 3 features the much softer sounds of doors closing. This too, I believe, is the most clearly rhythmic part of the opera. It finally ends with on brief crescendo of horns to complete the piece.

There is no specifically clear narrative, as this piece is obviously more focused on music, but the progression of instruments is very interesting to me. It starts with the chaotic sounds of car horns, followed by more rhythmic engine revving, and finally wraps up with the sounds of doors closing which is the most clearly rhythmic. Throughout the opera, there is a sense of anarchy which is steadily tamed into a unified rhythm, almost like there is a story of creation being told. Raw power (or sound) is brought together into one unified song.

John Lennon (and Yoko Ono) "No Bed for Beatle John" [found lyrics]

The message may be clearer (the song is about the trials and tribulations of John and Yoko putting out a particular album) and the song is written more traditionally with clear lyrics and with backup lyrics and instruments, but this song is almost stranger than the previous "CarMen."

The sound of Yoko's voice is almost unsettling as she sings, and it is even more difficult to follow her timing and use of pitch than the cars'. There is the faint sound of white noise from the recording equipment or speakers in the background, and John softly sings another song in the background, assumably that it's related but it is difficult to make out what he's saying throughout most of the song.

Both songs tell a story, one very literal while the other is more conceptual, but in reverse, the more literal song is harder to listen to in a way due to it's almost sounding unnatural, while the first song is unnatural considering all the musical sounds come from cars. In a lot of ways, these songs are each other's opposites.