The overture to the opera William Tell, by Gioachino Rossini

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 it is quoted by Dmitri Shostakovich 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:

Prelude - a slow passage with low-pitch instruments such as cello and bass
Storm - dynamic section played by full orchestra
Ranz des Vaches (call to the dairy cows) - featuring the English horn (this segment is often used in animated cartoons to signify daybreak)
Finale - ultra-dynamic "cavalry charge" galop heralded by trumpets and played by full orchestra (this segment is often used in popular media to denote galloping horses and became the Lone Ranger theme music)

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Music

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• by Gioachino Rossini

[young5ever]

Whoa horsy!

[rosalegistubbururinn]

this song owns

[CyanCygnus]

Thanks for posting the whole thing - so many postings are just the finale.

It is worthwhile to read the play upon which this was based, by the German "Poet of Freedom", Friedrich Schiller. The story of Wilhelm Tell, although perhaps a very old tale, in Schiller's hands, was also an homage to our American Revolution.