Found Fanfare
Item #36 on the FAQ of this unofficial Montreal Metro appreciation website:
This via a MetaFilter post about where the similar sound made by certain New York City trains comes from. I don't think those tones, as the other comment remarks, actually sound that much like "Somewhere" from West Side Story, even if the pitches are there. Which is a shame, since more things in this country should sound vaguely like domestic mid-20th-century classical music.
WHAT IS THAT THREE-NOTE SOUND I HEAR WHEN A METRO TRAIN STARTS UP?It's true: you can hear it a couple minutes into this audio recording. Which is pretty neat to listen to itself, somehow.
The three-note sound (there may be more notes during a slower startup) that is produced by the MR-73 trains (orange, yellow, and blue lines) is the sound of a piece of equipment called a peak chopper. It is used to power up the motors on the train in stages, to prevent a power surge.
Coincidentally, the three notes are the same as the first three notes as Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, one of the musical themes for Expo '67.
This via a MetaFilter post about where the similar sound made by certain New York City trains comes from. I don't think those tones, as the other comment remarks, actually sound that much like "Somewhere" from West Side Story, even if the pitches are there. Which is a shame, since more things in this country should sound vaguely like domestic mid-20th-century classical music.
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2 Comments:
This reminds me of that breakfast spot in New Haven whose doorbell sounded just like Rite of Spring.
I hear just two tones, a descending major third, which occurs only barely in Somewhere, between "place" and "some."
That upward leap and fall is more recognizable (even if it's stolen from the Emperor concerto).
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