This article contains information from Wikipedia.
The overture to the opera William Tell, especially its high-energy finale, is a very familiar work composed by Gioachino Rossini. There has been repeated use (and sometimes parody) of this overture in the popular media, most famously for being the theme music for the Lone Ranger radio and television shows, and Dmitri Shostakovich quoted it in his Symphony No. 15. William Tell was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music, and secular vocal music.
The overture is written in four parts, each seguéing into the next:
- The Prelude, also called "Dawn," is a slow passage with low-pitch instruments such as cello and bass.
- The Storm is a dynamic section played by the full orchestra.
- The Ranz des Vaches, or "Call To The Dairy Cows," features the cor Anglais, or "English horn." (This segment is often used in animated cartoons to signify daybreak.)
- The Finale is also called "The March Of The Swiss Soldiers." It is an ultra-dynamic "cavalry charge" galop heralded by trumpets and played by the full orchestra. (This segment, often used in popular media to denote galloping horses, is the segment that became the Lone Ranger theme music.)
Lone Ranger producers James Jewell and George W. Trendle decided upon the William Tell Overture largely due to it being in the public domain, sparing the WXYZ radio station the need to pay royalties for its use. That also explained the use of Flight Of The Bumblebee as the theme for The Green Hornet radio series.
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