Product Description
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Thunderbirds Are Go!"
A British science-fiction television series, Thunderbirds was created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and is considered their most popular and commercially successful series. Produced between 1964 and 1966 using electronic marionette puppetry (or "Supermarionation") and scale-model special effects sequences, two series were filmed, totalling 32 50-minute episodes.
Set in the mid-2060s, Thunderbirds follows the exploits of International Rescue (IR), a life-saving organisation equipped with technologically-advanced land, sea, air and space rescue craft. The main characters are ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, the founder of IR, and his five adult sons (Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John) who pilot the Thunderbird machines.
Thunderbirds began its first run in the UK on the ITV network in 1965. Since then it has been broadcast in
at least 66 other countries. It is the fourth Supermarionation puppet TV series to be produced the Andersons, following on from Supercar, Fireball XL5, and Stingray.
The score was composed by Barry Gray, who is best known for his collaborations with the Andersons. Gerry Anderson requested that the main theme for Thunderbirds have a "military feel", leading to a brass-dominated piece titled "The Thunderbirds
March". This march has been quoted as "one of the best TV themes ever written " and "in the quintessential soundtrack of the Sixties with the James Bond films and the songs of Frank Sinatra, Elvis and The Beatles."
This arrangement is for the UK-style brass band, with alternative parts for horns in F and bass-clef lower brass. The key is a semitone higher from the original. It also has two different openings: the TV Countdown, including the chords used in
the countdown heard at the beginning of the TV introduction, and the March Version, which has the same introduction as the 1965 LP version. A recording of the music can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BN8cxA2gME.
Other searchable terms: Thunderbirds March, Thunderbirds Are Go, Tracy Island
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.