Thursday, December 13, 2007

Palpable, Actual Goosebumps

The opening credits to Sweeney Todd have been released:



  • I was convinced they would abandon the pipe organ, but right there, after a few preliminary spooky and deep bass sounds, it is
  • No factory whistle, but given that they probably won't maintain the device of having the whistle blow after every murder, that makes sense
  • Love the device of seeing the blood flow through London, to Sweeney's chair, into the meat, into the sewers, and back out to see. One can easily imagine the transition to the first scene of Sweeney and Anthony arriving in London
  • The use of the Ballad as the scoring is perfect, with a wonderful Tunick orchestration that sounds suitably filmic and big without veering too far from the sounds that make the piece of music so good to begin with

I also see this morning that the film got several Golden Globe nominations, including Picture (Musical/Comedy), Actor (Musical/Comedy), and Actress (Musical/Comedy).

Until Whenever

3 comments:

R.A. Porter said...

I like-y. I really liked the blood flowing through the gears and its dual implications: the industrial machine grinding up citizens; and people being mere cogs in the machine.

I cannot *wait* until this opens.

Roger Owen Green said...

Did you see the article in the NYT about Sondheim reworking the songs? http://tinyurl.com/2r74w5

Tosy And Cosh said...

r.a. - it's a sweet little nod to Hal Prince as well, for me. I'm impressed at how "filmic" a sound Tunick and Gemignani got out of the orchestra - given their backgrounds, I thought it might sound more "Broadway," but if you didn't know the score, I don't think it would sound like anything other than really good film music.

Roger - I did; thanks. It was an intriguing article. And the short note at the end - about Sam Mendes looking at adapting Follies, was very enticing.