The Nokia tune (also called Grande Valse on old Nokia mobile phones) is a phrase from a composition for solo guitar, Gran Vals, by the Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega, written in 1902.
In 1993 Anssi Vanjoki, then Executive Vice President of Nokia, brought the whole Gran Vals to Lauri Kivinen (now Head of Corporate Affairs) and together they selected the excerpt that became "Nokia tune". The excerpt is taken from measures (bars) 13–16 of the piece. The tune, which Nokia claims as a sound trademark, was the first identifiable musical ringtone on a mobile phone. It first appeared in the Nokia 2110, which was released in 1994.
The tune is heard worldwide an estimated 1.8 billion times per day, about 20,000 times per second.
Hong Kong singer Khalil Fong, a Nokia spokesperson for Greater China, composed a song called "Coconut Shell" (椰殼) which features a segment of the Nokia tune played on the Erhu, a Chinese two-string instrument.
Famous quotes containing the word tune:
“If you will play from a copy of a tune that is choppy,
You’ll get all my applause.”
—Irving Berlin (1888–1989)