Siren (alarm)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A siren is a loud noise maker. The original version would yield sounds under water, suggesting a link with the sirens of Greek mythology. Most modern ones are civil defense or "air raid" sirens, tornado sirens, or the sirens on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. There are two general types, pneumatic and electronic.
As art
Sirens are also used as musical instruments, such as in Edgard Varèse's Hyperprism (1924), Ionisation (1931), recorded, in his Poeme Electronique (1958), George Antheil's "Ballet Mécanique" (1926), The Klaxon: March of the Automobiles (1929 by Henry Fillmore, The Chemical Brothers's Song to the Siren and, (in a CBS News 60 Minutes segment) by experimental percussionist Evelyn Glennie.