David Arnold has had a brief film composing career, yet he has become one of the best (in my mind). I'd rank him up there with John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Barry. His music gives off an energy not seen (or rather heard) even by the grand master himself, John Williams (whose recent scores have lacked some of the punch they used to have). While his score for Independance Day was not his best, Stargate and Tomorrow Never Dies are near perfection. The following history and comments are taken from the liner notes from the Stargate Soundtrack.

Born in the English industrial town of Luton, David Arnold's household was always filled with music and songs. He was formally schooled in woodwind while teaching himself the guitar and keyboards, playing in a variety of groups from orchestras to military and rock bands.

Arnold wrote and practiced his music in a small community arts center. There he met aspiring filmmaker Danny Cannon, and both young men determinded that their respective futures would be in scoring and directing movies. Cannon ultimately went to the National Film School, and Arnold ended up scoring many of the university's student pictures. Besides playing all of his soundtrack's instruments and synthesizers, Arnold also became involved in every filmaking facet from casting to sound mixing.

David Arnold's break came when Danny Cannon's auspicious short films landed hima feature with "The Young Americans". Working with conductor/orchestrator Nick Dodd, Arnold recorded his first symphonic score. Arnold and Cannon brought the film to Hollywood where a midnight screening for producer Mario Kassar led to a meeting between Arnold and director Roland Emmerich. Within two days, the neophyte composer went from laboring for recording money to scoring a science fiction epic; "Stargate".

With his rousing melodies that bring audiences firmly back to the glory days of "Star Wars" and "Close Ecounters", David Arnold has transported himself through the Stargate into the front ranks of film composers.

- Daniel Schweiger

Over a year and a half ago I was first introduced to the work of David Arnold. Roland Emmerich, the film's director, played an audio cassette for me of the music David had just written for a British film called "The Young Americans". His music was extremely melodic and expressive. There was an intrinsic romanticism to his themes. The emotional breadth of his work was reminiscent of some of the most loved epic-style orchestral film scores of our time.

Roland, who believes strongly in giving young talent a shot, felt certain that David was the right man to score our film. I agreed.

David approached the score from the inside out. He interviewed most of the creative talent involved well before shooting began. What emerged was a bold score, both epic in size, yet delicate with its insights into our story and characters.

As part of the filmmaking team behind "Stargate", I know I speak for all of us when I say that we were overwhelmed with the power and the beauty of this wonderful music that David has written. He has created a masterful score resonant with swooping romantic themes wich hearken back to some of the classic movies of our time. He has successfully blended the old with the new and come up with a rich, emotional score that is at times epic in size then subtle in intricate detail.

This swooping score marks David's startling debut to the American film industry. He is a major new talent, one that I hope we will be hearing for years and years to come.