Music of the Week: September 29 - October 2

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote many very popular operas. "The Barber of Seville" is his best known opera.

This overture to the opera 'Guillaume Tell' ('William Tell'), is familiar as the galloping 'Lone Ranger' theme. In addition to its use for the cowboy series, it has appeared in many films including 'A Clockwork Orange' and 'Brassed Off'. Comedy pianist Victor Borge based a routine on it, and the tune is quoted ironically first movement of Shostakovich's Symphony No 15.

This was the overture to the last opera he wrote, for in 1829 - in his thirties - Rossini gave up big-time composing, and retired to Paris to live off his profits.

The galloping rhythms of the piece, and its cheerful character, made it the obvious choice as the theme tune for the 'Lone Ranger'. Rossini was a master of the popular tune, and he'd surely have approved.

In 1971, Dmitri Shostakovich quoted the 'William Tell' theme in the first movement of his last Symphony, No 15 - a sardonic comment on the nature of popularity, as the great Russian was known in his youth as the 'Soviet Rossini'. Shortly after the quote appears, the orchestra seems to laugh out loud.

Rossini as a young man

Rossini as an older man

William Tell and his son

The Legend of William Tell

According to legend, William Tell was an expert with a bow and arrow who lived in the mountains of Switzerland. At the time, William Tell’s home in Switzerland was under the control of Austria and a nasty ruler named Gessler.

Gessler thought that he was so important that the citizens should salute him even when he wasn’t there. So, he put his hat on a pole in the center of town and commanded the citizens to bow down to it.

William Tell arrived in town one day with his son and refused to salute the hat. Gessler was very upset, but instead of killing William Tell right there, he challenged him to shoot an apple off his son’s head with one shot. If he succeeded, William Tell could remain free.

William Tell did shoot the apple off his son’s head with a single arrow. But Gessler noticed that before he tried, Tell had taken two arrows out of his quiver and asked why. William Tell answered, “If I had missed, that second arrow would have been headed your way.”

 Eventually, William Tell did kill Gessler, which started a Swiss uprising that forced the Austrian invaders from Switzerland.

a crossbow