FARMINGTON – It was a one-of-a-kind musical extravaganza but there were no instruments in sight. Unless, of course, you count the 50 or so cars parked in five lots at the University of Maine at Farmington.

In place of strings, brass and percussion, the orchestra featured a Mercedes-Benz, a Shelby Cobra and plenty of Toyotas.

The debut Tuesday of “Car Life: A Traffic Jam Session for Automobile Orchestra” featured sounds of revving engines, horns, radios and slamming doors.

The performance was choreographed by Steve Pane, a UMF music professor, who waved flags from a podium on the back porch of the psychology building. Five other automotive maestros, one in each lot, then conducted the driver-musicians under them.

The quirky 15-minute cacophony of automotive noise, composed by music professor Philip Carlsen, sounded like music to some. To others, it was more like the sounds of a monumental New York City traffic jam.

“I can’t really tell you what it sounded like,” said Celeste Branham, UMF’s vice president for student and community services. “There was actually a lot of yelling in the cars.”

Carlsen was laid up in bed with sciatica and didn’t get to hear his composition, which had never been performed before, not even in practice. He said its inspiration came in part from a former professor of Carlsen’s and from the work of American composer John Cage.

“The idea is music is happening all around us,” Carlsen said. “We just need to open our ears and be able to hear it. Hear the sounds of the world as being a kind of music, and my piece is in that spirit.”