It was the summer of 1996 and something rocked our world. Independence Day came out on July 2 and taught us that Will Smith was our best hope in the face of an alien attack.
This was one of the first scores that got us excited about music. A summer blockbuster with an awesome score is always great and this is one of the most memorable. The main theme has some great soaring horn parts. Toward the end, there's some amazing trumpet fanfares played on piccolo trumpet.
There was amazing hype around this movie and David Arnold felt it. From IMDB:
“Struggling to write the score, David Arnold secluded himself in a Los Angeles hotel room for almost four months to avoid the escalating hype for the film. But from his window he saw helicopters carrying banners with taglines to the film as part of a marketing campaign, which only stressed him out even more.
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“Leave it up to a Brit to come up with some of the most stirringly patriotic music I’ve ever heard.”
The studio orchestra for Independence Day included lots of familiar faces like Malcolm McNab. They completely nail it and sound like they're having a great time. Go check this one out and you'll be glad you did.
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