2004年03月04日 木曜日
Train Tone Super-懐かしい
by Justin Hall
Music
Living as a long-term traveller in Tokyo, I developed a great fondness for the train chimes. Many stations would have their own melodies, and as I wandered around the Yamanote, I relished the minor treble concerts that accompanied each landing point.
I always wanted to find a CD of the train chimes. I did some preliminary searching while I was in Japan, but didn't have any luck. I heard a September 2003 National Public Radio report on the train chimes, from Andy Raskin; here's a direct link to a Real audio version. That confirmed my fondness for the merry melodies, and gave me some historical context.
But it didn't bring me any closer to having them. Then finally, I saw these links on BoingBoing: two sites that have MIDI files of Japanese train station songs: Musical Boxes in the Train and Railway Melodies or Chimes.
Fantastic! 懐かしい! And because they are in MIDI form, these chimes work with many of the modern mobile phones. Finally I might be able to make my Treo 600 sing the Harajuku station tone with an incoming call!
Posted by Justin Hall at 2004年03月04日 15:57
Comments
Does the Treo 600 import MIDI? ;-) Being able to import one of these might actually be the feature that puts me over the edge to buy the treo. lol
/スコ
I love these sounds myself -- even made some field recordings in 1999. Glad I did, too; because they've updated my favorite, for some reason -- on the Yamanote, at Shibuya.
Be advised that you can find MP3s of that original music, plus many, many others, at
http://melody.pos.to --
"The Sound of Station in Japan."
Enjoy!
hey if your looking for Train Tone heres a site with departures and arivals melody.
site: http://melody.pos.to/