Screeching killing sweeney todd sound

[hrsprybeat1232]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 3:37pm

Does anybody know what type of instrument makes the noise whenever Sweeney kills somebody? It makes the hairs stand straight up on the back of my neck.

[morosco]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 3:43pm

Are you talking about the original stage production? That was a factory whistle and in the theatre it was louder than you could ever imagine.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 4:03pm

It's a great sound. Even if you're not doing the whole factory/industrial revolution concept, I think it's still cool to use. And it is written into the score. Where one finds a factory whistle though I know not.

[morosco]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 4:38pm

Where one finds a factory whistle though I know not.

Funny you should say that. I have been searching the internet just for the heck of it to find a factory whistle with that high pitch. (No I don't want to buy one. Just bored.) All I have found so far are steam boat and train whistles and they would be completely inappropriate for Sweeney Todd.
Wrong whistle

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 4:43pm

My memory of the revival isn't what it used to be, but didn't they use a whistle sound? I wonder what they used for that.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 4:48pm

They did, but only whenever a person was killed.

[LadyRosecoe]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 4:54pm

And it was quite tame if you ask me. Give me the deafening, shrill whistle any day, but I can't imagine that being good for the welfare of the actors onstage hearing it nearly a dozen times 8x a week.

[Jon]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 4:58pm

For our production, our percussionist used a "boat whistle" he happened to own. it was four metal pipes of different lenghs (from about 10 inches to 14 inches) clustered together with a single mouthpiece. If you blew through it gently, it sounded like an ocean liner. Howeverm if you "overblew" it - blowing as hard as you possible could, it made that screeching factory whistle sound.

[morosco]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 5:05pm

overblew

Oh! That makes sense. Thanks.

[nmartin]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 5:17pm

"in the theatre it was louder than you could ever imagine."

Morosco, you're right about that. Twenty-seven years later and my ear are still ringing.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 6:07pm

And I detest that sound so much.

[morosco]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 6:18pm

Ha. When I first saw the original production I don't know what I was more afraid of. It was either 1) the thought that someone was about to get their throat slit or 2)the thought that they're gonna blow that damn whistle again.

Loved it. And I'd give anything to go back in time to see (and hear) it again.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:11pm

The first time it went off in the original production, I nearly jumped into the row in back of me. As Morosco said, it was ear-shattering. The cast recording doesn't even begin to convey how loud it was in person.

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 1/2/08 at 9:16pm

At Drury Lane in London i thought i was going to die with that first whistle and every time i saw the production after,it got me every time. A perfect theatre moment!

[morosco]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 9:33am

Does anyone know who originally came up with the idea of the whistle? Sondheim? Prince?

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 9:52am

The whistle was Prince's idea. It ties in with the whole industrial concept that was mentioned above.


FYI the factory whistle isn't live. It's a sound effect usually run through the board. I don't think there's anything around that could fit in a theatre and make that sound live.

[morosco]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 9:55am

FYI the factory whistle isn't live. It's a sound effect usually run through the board. I don't think there's anything around that could fit in a theatre and make that sound live.

That's not true. The original production had a live whistle. It wasn't physically very large. It was about the size of a Pringles potato chip can.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 10:01am

When I first watched the concert with Patti and George on PBS, I thought it was the sound of the razor running across metal. Then I read the script and I'm like, "Oh, it's a factory whistle."

[morosco]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 10:34am

The whistle in the original production looked a bit like this one. It was operated with compressed air. The tone of the whistle was determined by adjusting the air pressure.

[morosco]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 10:39am

double post
Updated On: 1/3/08 at 10:39 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/3/08 at 12:26pm

And here all this time I thought it was Betsy Joslyn.