In 2009, a report revealed that the Nokia tune is heard worldwide an estimated 1.8 billion times per day, so The original Nokia ringtone is possibly the most played tune in history.
The Nokia tune (also called Grande Valse) is a musical phrase from a composition for solo guitar, Grand Valse, by the Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega of the Romantic period, written in 1902.
However, the composer inspired his own from a piece of music by Frédéric Chopin, which has the same name ‘Grande Valse’ ,where sounds like the Nokia tone around 1:33 in Chopin’s composition.
Why did Nokia choose this piece?
Nokia needed a soundbite free of expensive copyright complications, and European law makes music available to the public 70 years after the composer’s death. Tárrega, who died 84 years earlier, was the perfect choice.
Here, You can notice The Nokia tune in Tárrega’s music piece: