Musical Training

In Japan, trains play music. At each stop, a short chiming song is played over the train's PA system -- a different one for each stop, apparently. The melodies are also played in stations. You can hear them on this page of MIDI files: Musical Boxes in the trains.

I especially like the jingle called "Tohoku," which has a "hurrying" tempo that reminds me of a train station at rush hour. Most of the melodies I've never heard before, although one is based on Strauss's "Blue Danube" ("Hatsukari") and another is a take on Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" ("Hatsukari 2"). Some of them are a bit cloying for my taste, but they all beat that dull "ding-dong" doorbell sound that that New York subway trains make.

(via boing boing)