Discover the legendary ringtone on Nokia phones

According to SlashGear , although Nokia has fallen from the top of the mobile phone industry, the catchy little tune of the Nokia ringtone is instantly recognizable. It's a kind of beep and pop rather than a recorded musical performance. In 2011, the Finnish company even held a contest to honor the best remix of the "Nokia Tune."

In fact, the Nokia ringtone was so recognizable that in the 2001 ABC series Alias , the main character Sydney Bristow, played by Jennifer Garner, used it to distract her enemies and gain the upper hand in a fight scene. At the time, the Nokia ringtone was well-known enough to be recognizable.

The thing is, there's a question about where that fun tune came from? Was it written specifically for Nokia? Or was it borrowed from a previously published track?

The answer is that it came from a classical composition. The direct inspiration for the Nokia ringtone was a fragment of Gran Vals , a 1902 song by classical guitarist Francisco Tarrega, with the part used as the ringtone starting at the 12-second mark of the recording. The track was in the public domain, so there were no copyright barriers to clear, so Nokia chose it. In fact, several different songs were tested before Nokia released the first phone with the Nokia ringtone in 1994.

Additionally, on Nokia phones, in the ringtone selection menu, the Nokia Tune's melody is called "Grande Valse" instead of "Gran Vals." That's because Tarrega took a portion of the excerpt used as a ringtone from Frederic Chopin's composition Grande Valse . Tarrega said that while the Nokia ringtone does resemble the relevant portion of Chopin's song, it is not a completely original creation of his own.