Why Do Sri Lankan Bread Three Wheelers Play Für Elise

A constant sound track of my life, and I don’t doubt many others is Für Elise by Beethoven I don’t wake up and play a worn record of Beethoven’s piano classic (maybe some do) but because of the bread three wheelers that roam every neighborhood in the morning or afternoon.

To attract the folks at home they play the tune, not a classical recording but a rudimentary monophonic synthesized rendition. This has been the norm for long, that folks colloquially call these bread three wheelers “චූන්පාන්” not a linguist but seems like an onomatopoeia for the sound they make.

But why? I keep seeing this question being asked and answered often. For me the answer has always been simple as a kid dabbling with electronics when I was small.

UM66T Integrated Circuit

It’s because of technology, specifically a chip called the UM66T, which is a simple melody generator chip designed to be used in telephones, door-bells, etc.

With this and a bit more components you can construct a simple circuit which can blast a single pre-programmed tune through a horn speaker, for which we like Pavlov’s dog conditioned to run outside to. Check the video below to see it in action,

Makes me want to grab a kimbula bunis and some tea.

the UM66T is not a single chip but a series of chips, what we are talking about is the UM66T19L. Yes there are more.

But our choonpaan played “It’s a Small World”?

Maybe your neighborhood bread three wheeler played “It’s a Small World”? Or another choonpaan rival did? Helps this theory as “It’s a Small World” is another option of the UM66T chip series.

Given below is the complete list of part numbers and the song they played

The more you know!