William Tell Overture (finale)

About this arrangement

The galloping finale of Rossini’s William Tell overture (1829), known to generations as the Lone Ranger’s theme. The rhythm is the whole point: a crotchet and two quavers, “dum da-da”, like hooves, starting with two quaver pickups before the first bar. Rossini’s key is E major; here it is C. The gallop sits on the G below middle C, played with the thumb, and the hand stretches up for C D E and drops back. In bar 7 the tune climbs to the G above middle C and holds it for two and a half beats before running down F E D. The left hand gallops too, a bass note then a chord, on C and G7.

Practice tip: Tap the “dum da-da” rhythm on your knee first, then play bar 1 on repeated Gs until the gallop is even. Keep the two pickup quavers light; they lead into the bar.

A short history

Guillaume Tell was Rossini’s last opera, first performed at the Paris Opéra on 3 August 1829; he was thirty-seven and, though he lived another thirty-nine years, he never wrote another. The overture is in four linked parts: a slow dawn for five solo cellos, a storm, a pastoral “Ranz des vaches” for cor anglais and flute, and this galloping finale, often called the March of the Swiss Soldiers.

The finale took on a life of its own as the theme of The Lone Ranger, first on American radio from 1933 and then on television in the 1950s, which is why so many people hear a galloping horse in it.

The opera tells the story of the Swiss folk hero who was forced to shoot an apple from his son’s head; today the overture is played far more often than the opera itself.

Quick facts

Tune

Gioachino Rossini, 1829

Key

C major

Time signature

4/4

Length

8 bars and a pickup

Tempo

Galloping, crotchet = 126

Difficulty

Level 3: Notes below middle C (piece 38 of 201)

Type

Classical

Hands

Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left

Copyright

Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use

Questions and answers