->"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9wWBjnaEck doo dee doo doo... doo dee DEE doo... dee doo dee doo... dee dee DEE doo...]]"

The most common tune played by clock chimes, in both in RealLife and fiction, is the one known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Quarters Westminster Quarters]]. The tune is constructed from five different sequences combining four pitches. Not all five are played at once: even at the full hour, only the last four are used, followed by between one and [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve twelve]] strokes on a deeper bell. The most popular of these sequences would seem to be the fourth (mi, do, re, sol) and fifth (sol, re, mi, do). (These are also played at third quarter, followed by the first.) Therefore, the most commonly heard in fiction are the fourth and fifth sequences, or the fourth alone, often repeated for effect in either case.

Japanese school bells often sound like this, to the point where it's a StockSoundEffect in high school anime.

A somewhat common variant is to use only the fourth sequence, but with the first note raised a half step so that the first two notes make a falling fourth rather than a falling major third. In this augmented variation, the tonic is usually transposed to the first note from the second (i.e. do, sol, la, re rather than fa, do, re, sol).

A little-known fact is that the quarters have ''lyrics''. There are many variations, but the lyrics used by Big Ben (featured on a plaque in the clockworks room) are:
-->All through this hour/Lord be my guide/And by Thy power/No foot shall slide

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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime ]]

* Used in one of the ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' movies as part of an EstablishingShot for a school.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* Incorporated in the score for ''Film/MaryPoppins'', during the rooftop scene, between orchestral reprises of "Spoonful of Sugar" and "Feed the Birds".
* Used during the climactic scene of ''Film/SherlockHolmes''.
* The doorbell at the home of the eponymous Laura in ''{{Laura}}''.
* In ''The Ghost and Mr. Chicken'', when Luther Heggs is spending the night in the haunted house, these bells can be heard in the distance just before the famous scene with the self-playing organ and the bleeding portrait.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* In ''Discworld/ReaperMan'', a demon-powered pocketwatch announces the half-hour by saying "Bing bing bong bing. Bingely-bingely bong bing bing". This trope is so familiar that even in print you can tell it's ''meant'' to be Westminster Quarters.

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[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* The ThemeSong to ''YesMinister'' was based on this motif.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY "Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong... wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong."]]
* ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'' had a doorbell that made this sound. Naturally, whenever someone rang the doorbell, they had no idea where the sound was coming from and attempted to search for the song's source. Their search was always then interrupted by someone knocking on the door.
* ''Series/ThePrisoner'': The chimes are a key plot point in ''The Chimes Of Big Ben''. They help No. 6 [[spoiler:realise he hasn't escaped to London, and remains a captive in The Village.]]
* ''TheKingOfQueens'': The doorbell of Doug and Carrie's annoying neighbors, the Sackskys.
* ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'': The doorbell of Ray and Debra's annoying rivals, the Parkers.

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[[folder: Music ]]

* The intro to "Let 'Em In" by Music/{{Wings}}.
** [[PaulMcCartney Paul]] wasn't the only ex-[[Music/TheBeatles Beatle]] to work the WestminsterChimes into one of his solo songs. They also feature quite prominently as a RecurringRiff in GeorgeHarrison's "Ding Dong, Ding Dong."
* Played on the harp in the "London Symphony" by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
* The Fugue in A Major from "The Short-Tempered Clavier" by Music/PDQBach uses this complete with [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve twelve o'clock chime]].
* The opening to [[SpellMyNameWithAThe The]] Ohio State University Marching Band's rendition of the school's alma mater, ''Carmen Ohio'', has the trumpet sections mimicking the bells (which play on campus every fifteen minutes at the Orton Hall belltower.)
* The jazz standard If I Were a Bell starts out with a jazzy version of the chimes.
* Jeff Beck quotes this in TheYardbirds song "Jeff's Boogie".
* The opening riff of X's "Los Angeles" is meant as a variation on this - it's done at a fast enough tempo that you might not catch the intentional similarity at first.
* The intro of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling's "The Chimes Of Big Ben". Which makes sense because the song is inspired by the already mentioned ''[[Series/ThePrisoner Prisoner]]'' episode of the same name.
* Supertramp uses the chimes during the one of the collage sections in "Fool's Overture".
* [[PatrickWolf Patrick Wolf's]] ''London'' incorporates the last two measures, played on a piano.
* Clock Strikes Ten by Cheap Trick features Rick Nielsen playing the WC with harmonics.

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[[folder: Truth In Television ]]

* Well the TropeNamer and TropeCodifier is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiKOhOzQyZg Big Ben]] isn't it?
* Lots of doorbells have this as one of their standard digital tones.
** Some electronic air raid sirens have it as a test signal. So imagine the electronic doorbell tones, but at earsplitting volume, too!
* Just like mentioned above, Japanese Schoolbells.
* Many antique clocks used this as a chime after "Big Ben" was built. However, the tune really originated from Great St. Mary's church in Cambridge, England, [[http://www.gsm.cam.ac.uk/great-st-marys/bells/ and was known as the "Cambridge" chimes before it was used in "Big Ben" at the Westminster Palace.]]
* Brownies (The UK equivalent of Girl Scouts) often used to end meetings with a song to this tune: Oh Lord our God/ Thy children call/ Grant us thy peace/ And bless us all. Nowadays, because of the reference to God, another song is often used instead.
* At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Charlotte Dujardin won Britain's first individual dressage gold in decades, with a routine that matched the chimes to the strides in a [[http://theequestriannews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Olympic-dressage_DuJardinC_5x4.jpg canter pirouette]].

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[[folder: Theatre ]]

* "Tender Shepherd" in the musical ''PeterPan'', though the low "sol" is often avoided by the singers.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* This forms the basis for the background music of Twinkle Elementary in ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER|1}}'' and Sunflower Elementary in ''VideoGame/HamtaroHamHamsUnite!''
* Used as the background music for the pinball stage in ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}} Da!''
* It also appears briefly at the beginning of the ''TokimekiMemorial'' stage in ''Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius''.
** And by extension, it's a staple of the ''TokimekiMemorial'' series, being {{Konami}}'s Japanese HighSchool RomanceGame series.
* The fourth segment is used at the beginning of the Clefairy pointing minigame in ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium''.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium 2'' uses it for battles in Earl's Academy--the chimes play, then it segues into an arrangement of the Pokemon Center theme.
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' plays the fourth segment at the end of every school day in-game, naturally it's a Japanese school you're at.
* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' uses this as a puzzle- You have to play it on a piano that has its keys rearranged.
* Used as menu music in [[GrandTheftAutoClassic Grand Theft Auto: London 1969]].
* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in ''DawnOfWar'', where an Ork says the word "Orkz" in this fashion.
* Heard after each wave in ''VideoGame/{{Thwaite}}'' to signify that an hour has passed between waves.

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[[folder: Web Original ]]

* The ''Website/{{WrestleCrap}} Radio'' podcast briefly featured a device called the Clocktrolla (meant to count down the days until [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Champion]] [[Characters/WWEDivas Candice Michelle]] eclipsed The Fabulous Moolah's twenty-eight-year reign as champion); upon activation, the Clocktrolla played a terrible rendition of the tune, performed on steam whistles.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Used for Rarity's doorbell in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.

!!Examples of the augmented variation:

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[[folder: Theatre ]]

* Begins each iteration of "Poor Professor Higgins" in ''MyFairLady''.
* The play-out of "If I Were A Bell" from ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls''.
* The final cadence of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" in ''{{Gypsy}}''.
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