Talented muso boi plays William Tell Overture using nothing but bottles

18 August 2020, 15:05

William Tell on bottles
William Tell on bottles. Picture: Connor Gallagher/YouTube

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

I’d try this at home, but I’m afraid I might bottle it.

Someone has managed to perform the overture to William Tell entirely on glass bottles, in a video that probably took about a week to edit.

We can confirm, it was 100 percent worth the time and effort.

Connor Gallagher, an English guitarist, composer and arranger, is responsible for the excellent musical creation below, in which the Finale to Rossini’s great overture is performed on blown bottles.

Read more: A choir sang the entire William Tell Overture while galloping >

Overture to Gioachino Rossini's opera 'William Tell' performed entirely on blown bottles

The overture is the best-known part of the Italian composer’s work, one that reaches a galloping climax in its Finale, ‘March of the Swiss Soldiers’. It’s one of the most distinctive themes in classical music, and through its use in The Lone Ranger it’s now almost mandatory music for any fast-paced chase scene.

It’s also become almost inextricably associated with horses.

In the video above, Gallagher uses a trusty Hardy’s white wine bottle with varying water levels, a couple of Budweiser bottles for the overture’s higher notes and a hefty amount of AutoTune software as his instruments.

Watch, as he toots his way to musical Internet stardom.

A great – neigh, excellent – way to pass the time in quarantine.