DÉJÀ VU

History just keeps on repeating itself…

Who wants a bland ‘beep’ telling you to fasten your seat-belt? Not Lincoln car drivers, we’re told. For its new Aviator SUV range, the motor manufacturers invited three Detroit Symphony

Orchestra musicians to compose, play and record the tunes to be used in the cars’ warning systems, ranging from a ‘hard warning’ played on the marimba to a violin-based ‘non-critical alert’. Great idea, but it’s by no means the first time that music has been used as a means to provide an alert…

From Roman times, when cornua (horns) were played to instruct troops to attack or retreat, brass instruments continued to play a role in battle, their tunes growing in complexity – when Haydn visited London in the 1790s, he noted some of them down and quoted one in his ‘Military’ Symphony No. 100. It was during World War II, meanwhile, that the BBC introduced its Into Battle radio programme with Lillibulero, a tune that was later used as the ‘interval signal’ to alert listeners that they’d found the right point on the dial while no transmissions were on air. Talking of intervals, concert halls and opera houses today are increasingly using music to recall audiences back from the bar – not least the Royal Opera House, which commissions young composers to write tunes specifically for that purpose. And let’s not forget the home. Owners of various Samsung washing machines have become accustomed to hearing Schubert’s Trout Quintet letting them know that their clothes are washed, spun and ready to hang out… and hopefully not smelling of fish.