SONGS PLAYED ON GUITAR + ART WORK + INFORMATION ABOUT MUSIC
MUSIC AND ART
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces.
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The William Tell Overture is the overture to the opera William Tell (original French title Guillaume Tell), whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and 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 in four parts, each following without pause.
There has been repeated use (and sometimes parody) of parts of this overture in both classical music and popular media, most famously as the theme music for The Lone Ranger in radio, television and film. It was also used as the theme music for the British television series The Adventures of William Tell.
Franz Liszt prepared a piano transcription of the overture in 1838 which became a staple of his concert repertoire. There are also transcriptions by other composers, including versions by Louis Gottschalk for two and four pianos and a duet for piano and violin.
Cultural references
Described by David Wondrich as a "frequent target of plunder by brass bands in the years during which they dominated the American musical landscape", the overture features prominently in Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon The Band Concert. It has also been used in cartoons parodying classical music (e.g. Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster in which the overture's finale is performed by Daffy Duck and Porky Pig) or Westerns (e.g. Bugs Bunny Rides Again). The finale has also been sung with especially written lyrics by Daffy Duck in Yankee Doodle Daffy and by a quartet of singing policemen (as "Happy Anniversary") in theFlintstones episode "The Hot Piano".
One of the most frequently used pieces of classical music in American advertising, the overture (especially its finale) appears in numerous ads, with psychologist Joan Meyers-Levy suggesting that it is particularly suitable for those targeting male consumers. It was used in a hip-hop version by DJ Shadow to accompany the 2001 "Defy Convention" advertisement campaign for Reebok athletic shoes and in an electronic version for a 2008 Honda Civic campaign. Amongst the films which feature the overture prominently is Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, where the finale is played during the fast motion orgy scene. The less frequently heard introductory portion of the overture is used as somber mood music later in the film.
The overture is one of several pieces of classical music in the film's sound track which also includes the overture from Rossini's The Thieving Magpie, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
<-- Click this button to hear the final part William Tell Overture, this is the part I learnt as it's the best bit of the song.
STORY OF WILLIAM TELL
His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola, and the French-language epics Moïse et Pharaon and Guillaume Tell. A tendency for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, which led to the nickname "The Italian Mozart".
Until his retirement in 1829, Rossini had been the most popular opera composer in history
one of many examples of the overture being used in a cartoon
The overture is scored for: a piccolo, a flute, two oboes (first or second oboe doubles a cor anglais), two clarinets in A, two bassoons, four French horns in G and E, two trumpets in E, three trombones, timpani, triangle, bass drum and cymbals, and strings.
Structure
The overture, which lasts for approximately 12 minutes, paints a musical picture of life in the Swiss Alps, the setting of the opera. It was described by Berlioz (who usually loathed Rossini's works) as "a symphony in four parts", but unlike a symphony with its discretemovements, the overture's parts transition from one to the next without any break.