Music For Horns

Love it or hate it, Independence day was the summer hit of 1996, with Fox using its massive publicity department to create an unprecedented hype about a movie few people would have expected to generate all that much interest otherwise. David Arnold's music to ID4 follows the action on screen: blowing up most of the United States, patriotism at every corner, and massive humans against aliens battles. The fact that Arnold is British put aside, ID4 is one of the most "patriotic American" scores of all times.

Lynsdale-Nock took the "End titles" and presents it as a 16 horns (and percussion) extravaganza, with a considerable amount of notes to play in each part. There is little use trying to describe the music, as a recording can easily be found, and the arrangement is pretty close to the original. As usual in film music, many parts are doubled (the opening theme is in horns 1, 3, 5 and 7, for example), but these doublings are distributed nicely throughout the piece, which makes it much more interesting than, say, Caravan, where there are really only 8 individual parts.

The parts are roughly organised in sections of four, going from high to low (1-4 are always high, 13-16 are always low, the others somewhere in between), but within the sections the distribution is not entirely clear. Sometimes there is doubling in the odd or even parts, and sometimes it is in adjacent pairs. In fewer words: every part is to a large degree individual, which makes all of them interesting and fun to play.

Like the original, the arrangement varies between loud and quiet passages, incorporating the many themes of the score. Whichever passage one prefers, the whole of ID4 is one powerhouse of a work,and with the 16 horns used as well as they are, immensely exciting to play for every member of the ensemble. With the Vienna Horns - Director's Cut arrangements unavailable, this arrangement is more than an option - it is a must.