They made it into a ringtone because it was old enough to be public domain, and Nokia (I think?) didn’t want to have to pay royalties.
… I like the full version.
So after hearing this I did a little Google searching and found out that the name of this piece is “Gran Vals.” It was composed in 1902 by Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega. It was originally composed for guitar of all things. In 1993, the Executive Vice President of Nokia Ansii Vanjoki brought the piece to his Head of Corporate Communications Lauri Kivinen, and they selected an excerpt from measures 13-16 of the song to appear as the Type 7 ringtone on the Nokia 2110 released in 1994.
This is a performance of the original piece I found on YouTube.Â
Here are my pages that I did for – “The Answer” Golden Book by Rebecca Sugar! My friend Tiffany Ford illustrated the first half of the book and I did the second half. I’m grateful for the positive attention that it’s been receiving and that it was recently added to the NY Time’s bestseller’s list!Â
AngelMihe 