By BBC Music Magazine

Published: Monday, 04 March 2024 at 18:01 PM


Independence day is upon us once again and, in homage to our friends across the pond, we’ve selected nine of the best works to celebrate with. Just add fireworks and a bit of flag-waving, and we’re away.

Best Independence Day songs and music

1. Aaron Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man

Copland wrote this work in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra by request from Eugene Goossens. It was inspired in part by a famous speech made earlier in the year where vice president Henry A. Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the ‘Century of the Common Man’.

One of the most evocative melodies ever written is when the famous trumpet line cuts through the silence of drums and percussion. It was premiered 12 March 1943, as homage to the common man and Copland used it just three years later as the theme for the last movement of his Symphony No. 3.