What’s the Meaning of the Phrase “Whistle Down the Wind”?

I am, of course, referring to the song from the musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber that premiered in 1996 and has been arranged for use by choral groups. But Weber wasn’t the first to title a major work by this name. Here’s the genealogy:

1. Mary Hayley Bell, wife of the British film star John Mills, published a short novel titled Whistle Down the Wind: A Modern Fable in the late 1950s, basing her three main characters on her own three children. She said that the story “arrived fully-formed in her brain – beginning, middle and end – one summer’s morning in 1957. Within a matter of days, the story had been written, bought by her publisher and was on its way to bookshops up and down the country.” Bell had already written four plays at the time, so she was a known quantity in the publishing world. “Its title is believed to have been inspired by the sound of the wind around the bow windows
   of The Wick, the family’s home on Richmond Hill, London.^” (Wikipedia) As I’ll get to later, that isn’t what the phrase actually means, but the trail ends here regarding Bell’s thought processes about her title. The novel itself concerns a group of children who believe that a fleeing murderer hiding in a barn is actually Jesus Christ. The concept concerns the faith of the children vs. the suspicion and pragmatism of the adults—but the fugitive really is a murderer. The only reason that the children think he’s Jesus is that he uses that name as an expletive when he’s first discovered. The whole thing is heavily allegorical, with many references to the Bible. (If you’re interested in the subject I’d encourage you to read the Wikipedia article.)
2. Whatever the weaknesses of the plot (as I see them, anyway) the novel was considered to be compelling enough to be made into a film in 1961, starring . . . wait for it . . . Hayley Mills, Mary Bell’s daughter. (Bell had already turned the novel into a stage play.) If you’re (ahem) of a certain age, you certainly know the name of Hayley Mills, who by 1961 was a full-fledged child star in British cinema. Her father’s connections to that world didn’t hurt, I’m sure, but she really was (and is—she’s still living as I write this in early 2021) a terrifically talented performer. At the time of Whistle she had already appeared in two films, one of them the Disney film Pollyanna in 1960, a role that had resulted in great popularity for her in both the US and Britain. What better idea than to take this child star and put her into a vehicle that would make good use of her talents, and that had been written by her mother with her in mind? The film did very well at the box office. I’ve gone on YouTube and watched parts of it. While it seems a bit . . . leisurely, I’d have to say that the child actors are absolutely adorable. (Many of the child extras were recruited from the Lancashire countryside where the film was made.)
3. In 1989 the film was made into a musical staged by the British National Youth Music Theatre, where it has had several revivals. In 2015 it was given its first professional performance and since has had a few other revivals.
4. Then the biggie, with the song that is now available in choral arrangements and which my own choir has performed: the 1996 musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber. He moved the setting to the US, specifically Louisiana. The song is performed by Boone, the widowed father of the three main children in the story. (In the novel and film the mother has run off with another man.) Boone tells his children that they have to appreciate what they have, little as it may be, and that their mother used to say that if they had each other and were surviving day to day that they had nothing to complain about, leading to the song “It Just Doesn’t Get Any Better than This.” Then Boone says, “No matter how bad things got, your ma always had the words to make them right again” and launches into “Whistle Down the Wind.” The words of the song seem to be from the mother, saying in one verse, “Every signal that you send/Until the very end/I will not abandon you my precious friend.” (See full lyrics below videos.) So she seems to be saying, “Send out a prayer, or a call for help, and I’ll always be there for you.” Something like that.

There are some other songs out there with the same title but not the same lyrics, notably in the film Sixteen Candles, but since I’m concentrating on choral music I’m going to leave those out. Instead, I will end with an explanation of what the phrase really means, just to indulge my former-high-school-English-teachery tendencies. Because to “whistle down the wind” does not mean anything positive, at all. It means to let go, to cast someone or something off to its fate, to forsake. Perhaps the clearest indication of this negative slant comes from Shakespeare’s play Othello. The title character has just been told that his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful, and here’s what he has to say:

If I do prove her haggard [a female falcon] Though that her jesses [leather straps] were my dear heartstrings,
I’ld whistle her off and let her down the wind,
To pray at fortune.

Female falcons were known to be rather uncontrollable in the falconry world and therefore were associated with promiscuousness; the straps were used to train the birds by keeping them, literally, on a short leash. Such a great image here! We use the word “heartstrings” even today, and in exactly the same way: “That story really tugged at my heartstrings.” If Desdemona is proven to have betrayed him. Othello will cut her loose, “whistle her off and let her down the wind,” where she will have to trust in luck to sustain her (“pray at fortune”), since he will no longer have anything to do with her.

Didn’t Mary Hayley Bell know her Shakespeare? I have to think that she did, but she’s not available for me to ask. So I’ll have to leave it at that. I’ve pursued the meaning of an arcane phrase in connection with another well-known song; if you’d like to read about that little journey read my post about “Pennies from Heaven.”

Here are some cool videos of the song. First, as fitting the fact that I revised this post in January 2021 while choirs were still having to sing virtually, a nice group with some great voices:

And here’s the solo version from the Weber musical: