Tom at Music Thing has done an excellent series of posts this week on Tiny Music Makers: the people behind those tiny 4-second sounds we can all immediately identify, like the Intel sound and the Mac Startup sound. He even spoke to some of the music makers. Here’s a roundup of all five articles:

• Part 1: The “Intel Inside” Chimes—I had heard the composers 1980’s hit and had no idea he composed this too.
• Part 2: The Windows 95 Startup Sound—by none other than Brian Eno.
• Part 3: The THX Sound—complete with Simpsons parody clip.
• Part 4: The Mac Startup Sound—used in most Macs from 1991 to the present.
• Part 5: The Channel 4 Jingle —The only one I didn’t recognize, living in America, but still interesting: “Every time that sequence was played, David Dundas was paid £3.50.”

This is an excellent series of articles, and I think some unsung heroes are finally getting a tiny bit of recognition for their tiny music. I’d love to see this continue—maybe Tom can track down the composer of the Duracell melody or the “Yahoo” yodel.