AMMAN — You might expect to hear classical music in a
concert hall — not on the streets in inner city neighborhoods in Jordan. But
gas trucks in Jordan provide an unexpected symphony to passersby and residents.
اضافة اعلان
Gas trucks, with cargo beds stacked full of gas
cylinder, are a ubiquitous site in Jordan. But so too is the song that blasts
from each truck, announcing to the neighborhood that there is gas to buy: “Für
Elise”, one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s most popular pieces.
Beethoven intended the song, widely thought to be
written for a woman the composer pursued, to communicate love and romance — not
cooking gas for sale.
“Für Elise”, or “For Elise” in English, is the nickname
of the original Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano. Beethoven wrote one
of the most famous pieces of piano music in 1810, but it was not discovered and
published until 1867, 40 years after his death on March 26, 1827. The beloved
song is part of the Romantic music movement developed in the late 18th and
early 19th century in Europe.
“There is no doubt that using music instead of using the
honk or hitting on the gas cylinder is a civilized appearance,” said Haitham
Sukkarieh, a composer and a conductor at the University of Jordan, in an
interview with Jordan News. “We as specialists make a great effort to
raise the artistic taste of the Arab audience in general and the Jordanian
audience in particular, and we try to offer them doses of high-end artistic
culture through lectures, seminars, media, and concerts.”
“Classical music is very sophisticated music, and it is
the finest type of music in the world,” Sukkarieh said. He suggested that using
such sophisticated music in a commercial context is “offensive”. He called for
officials, “perhaps the Amman Municipality or the Ministry of Industry and
Trade, to “allocate special music that may be composed for them. But not
classical music, because using it in this way is an insult.”
The song is also commonly heard emanating from ice cream
trucks. “In one of my lectures, I explained about the “Für Elise” song. One of
the students told me that it is the music for selling ice cream,” the conductor
went on. “It is of course the music of Beethoven, but they do not know that it is
Beethoven’s, because it was presented in a distorted way to the audience.” The
song is so distinctive that a Google search for “Jordan gas truck song” brings
up almost a million views, including videos of the truck blasting its
distinctive music.
Jordanian gas sellers had a more practical view on the
matter. “I have been in this profession for 15 years, and people use this
music, and at the same time use it for ice cream,” said Yazan, a gas seller. “I
never knew that it is a world-famous music. In the past, we used to use the
honk of the vehicle, or we hit the gas cylinder, and shout as an indication
that the gas pick-up is in the area.”
Mohammed Zitawee, a musician and a composer at the
University of Jordan, commented “The use of Beethoven’s music in the gas
vehicles was meant as a comforting type of music and does not cause noise in
residential neighborhoods,” Zitawee told Jordan News.
Zitawee explained that when gas sellers transitioned to
using “Für Elise”, the song became inseparably tied to their business. In
general, Zitawee described the effects of this music on the neighborhoods where
gas trucks drive as “positive”. “In the past when the drivers used the honk of
their vehicle, in the morning the resident used to feel nervous,” he said, “but
the music had a very positive effect on the residents and has reduced
complaints about gas vehicles.”
Amman resident Mohammad agreed with Zitawee’s
assessment. He described the song’s association with gas trucks as “a unique
and positive phenomenon” that “works to spread the spirit of comfort.”
“At least, this music is better than using the honk
because the continuous usage of this sound causes audio and noise pollution,”
Barakat, a Zarqa resident, told Jordan News.
However, Barakat also agreed that the pairing of
classical music with cooking gas is incongruous and unpleasant.
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