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Nokia Trademarks Classic Guitar Score
What's a phone company to do when a classical 19th-century guitar score becomes its most popular and recognizable ringtone? Trademark it, of course.
Bill Heinze at I/P Updates delivers the news that on Sept. 4, Nokia received a U.S. trademark for "a sound comprising a C eighth note, E flat eight note, B flat eighth note, G quarter note, C eighth note and C quarter note." For the less musically inclined among us, that happens to describe the 14th bar of Gran Vals, a classical guitar piece composed by Spaniard Franciso Tárrega, described by Wikipedia as "one of the most influential guitarists the world has ever known." Unfortunately, perhaps, for Mr. Tárrega, his composition has also come to be known as the Nokia tune, thanks to its ubiquity as the company's default ring tone.
For its part, Nokia -- not to be crassly commercial about all this -- offers this sample of the song as it was meant to be played, by guitar rather than phone. For those who prefer their music in MIDI format, there is this version.
Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on September 14, 2007 at 04:11 PM | Permalink
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