Who are we to deny it in here?

[king_duncan]

Jim Allen was saying that when he plays Sondheim at Marie's, he simplifies a lot of it because the dissonances just sound wrong and out of tune on the piano (as opposed to orchestra).
I was listening to the OCR of Sweeney, and when it got to "A Little Priest", I was reveling in the harmonies they cut from the movie adaptation (one of my few

Comments

[dexeron]

I wondered the same thing. Hearing Lansbury and Hearn on the DVD I bought of a live performance, I seriously thought she was just completely out of tune at first before I realized that it was supposed to be that way. I have to wonder if a lot of things that were changed for the movie were conscious choices per your theory.

Can't wait until April when the new one's out on DVD too.

[dontbethebunny]

Oh yeah. I've played Mrs. Lovett and those harmonies are crazy! You need to work with a Sweeney who will be spot-on, plus the orchestra, of course, or else you'll end up sounding out-of-tune when you're actually nailing the notes. I love insane harmonies, so for me, I loooooved singing the role. ;)

[bunny42]

Innnnnnteresting! I'm not a musician, but I noticed Angela Lansbury was hitting some very strange notes. Wasn't unpleasant, just... different. I sang baratone in Sweet Adelines, so I'm familiar with weird harmony lines, but your theory of the Sweeney Todd harmonies sounds spot on! Thanks much.

[gruyere]

they might have sounded like HBC was out of tune, even if she was hitting the "right" notes.

You mean like all of the rest of her singing? *rimshot*