"Carnival"
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The first second of “Carnival” sounds like a gunshot. There’s a reason for that.
This short instrumental, barely a minute long, comes from The Black Rider play (which we’ve explored before). I’m not sure this slight composition means much out of the play’s context. So let’s look at it in that context.
The full Black Rider story, a retelling of a German folktale about Satan giving someone magic bullets (you’ll be shocked to learn this deal-with-the-devil has a catch), can be found at the Tom Waits Library.
The “Carnival” motif comes up twice in the course of the play. The first “Carnival” plays very early on:
Scene 2: The old uncle tells the story of young Kuno. When Kuno was young he once saved a man's live by shooting the stag he was tied to "Tied to the branches of a roebuck stag, Left to wave in the timber like a buck shot flag". In a flashback scene, we see the man on the stag is played by Robert. While tied to the stag Robert sings "November". Young Kuno shoots the stag and "Carnival" is played. Young Kuno is rewarded a miniature black box.
This video embed should start at the right spot:
Audiences hear “Carnival” again a couple scenes later, just after the devil Pegleg sells the protagonist Wilhelm the magic bullets, setting the main plot in motion:
Scene 4: Outside Wilhelm picks up the gun (offered to him by Pegleg), but doesn't know how to handle it. He tries to shoot deer placed like in a shooting gallery, but he fails. Then Pegleg enters and sings "Just The Right Bullets" to Wilhelm. Wilhelm is persuaded to try some magic bullets, and shoots all the deer regardless where he aims his gun. "Carnival" is played again.
This video should start there. Or rather, about a minute and change before there, since the devil singing (and dancing) “Just the Right Bullets” is a hoot to watch. The “Carnival”-soundtracked deer shoot is actually at 43:50, and leads into some footage of the pit orchestra playing “Carnival.”