Henry Mancini

The Life of Mancini
Enrico Nicola Mancini was born in Cleveland, Ohio on the 16th of April in the year 1924 and died in Beverly Hills, California on June, 14 of 1994. (Spaceagepop) This film composer lived to be the ripe old age of 70 before the day he passed away after a struggle with cancer of the pancreas.

He grew up in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania and there he started learning the flute and piccolo. Mancini attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology and then went to Julliard. (Spaceagepop) Mancini was drafted into the army for WWII, but managed to switch to the band. After he returned from service, Mancini joined Universal and stayed there for six years. (Imdb)
Mancini married Ginny O’Connor and fathered twin daughters, Monica and Felice, and a son named Chris. (Imdb)

Direct Quotes
*Mancini's knack with songwriting often overshadowed his talents as a composer. He wrote for a wide variety of genres, from western to slapstick comedy, from sensitive dramas to musicals. He often experimented with unusual instrumentation, such as a steam-driven calliope for "Baby Elephant Walk," the cymbalum in "Experiment in Terror," sitars and fuzz guitars in "Arabesque," and aboriginal percussion in his score for the television miniseries, "The Thorn Birds." – (Spaceagepop)

*Mancini--he of the gentle smile, the mellow demeanor, one of those not corrupted by Hollywood--was a unique crossover in what is normally a fairly secular profession. John Barry turned out terrific themes, Jerry Goldsmith created musical cues that were at once dramatic and melodramatic, and European emigres like Max Steiner and Erich Korngold reinvented classical symphonic music for the movies.

• Mancini, throughout his long career, did all of these things, and consistently one-upped the competition by churning out wonderful, stylized melodies. Mancini didn't only fit music to images. You could dance to it ("Something for Cat" from Breakfast at Tiffany's), march to it ("What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?"), make love to it ("Dreamsville," "Charade"), weep to it ("Soldier in the Rain," "Days of Wine and Roses"), and get scared out of your wits by it ("Wait Until Dark," "Experiment in Terror"). – (Members)
  
• He broke the mold set by the Europeans: Touch of Evil was subtile, flavored with jazz brass, and distinctly American. He always considered it among his best film scores (Members)
  
• He was nominated for 18 Oscars and won four; in addition, he won 20 Grammys and 2 Emmys, made over 50 albums and had 500 works published. (Imdb).
  
• Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative stamp issued in his honor, 13 April 2004. The titles of the following films and TV shows, for which Mancini wrote the score and/or songs, are listed on the stamp: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); Days of Wine and Roses (1962); Charade (1963); "Peter Gunn" (1958)'; The Pink Panther (1963); Two for the Road (1967); Touch of Evil (1958); Hatari! (1962); The Great Race (1965); Experiment in Terror (1962); Victor/Victoria (1982); Dear Heart (1964); and "The Thorn Birds" (1983) (mini). The Pink Panther cartoon character is in the lower left corner, pointing to Mancini. – (Imdb)
  
  
  
  Some works by Mancini include:
  Touch of Evil (1958) (starring Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, and Orson Welles)
  Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) (starring Audrey Hepburn)
  "Moon River" (lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
  Charade (1963) (starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn)
  "Charade"
  Soldier in the Rain (1963)
  The Pink Panther (1964) (starring Peter Sellers)
  "It Had Better Be Tonight" (lyrics by Johnny Mercer)
  Hatari!
  "Baby Elephant Walk"
  Experiment in Terror
  Days of Wine and Roses
  "Days of Wine and Roses"
  High Time
  Bachelor in Paradise
  The Great Impostor
  Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation
  Peanuts theme - often ascribed to Mancini, but actually composed by Vince Guaraldi.
  Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992)
  The Great Mouse Detective (1986) ... aka Basil-The Great Mouse Detective ... aka The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective (reissue title)
  Santa Claus (1985) ... aka Santa Claus: The Movie (USA: promotional title)
  The Lion King 1½ (2004) (V) (from "Peter Gunn Theme") ... aka Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata! (Europe: English title)

Works Cited

• Henry Mancini. Copyright spaceagepop.com 2006. Retrieved 05/23/06 http://www.spaceagepop.com/mancini.htm
• Henry Mancini. Retrieved 05/23/06
  http://members.home.nl/mancini/Movie1.html
• Biography for Henry Mancini. Retrieved 05/23/06
  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000049/
• Henry Mancini. Updated 22 May 2006 Retrieved 05/23/06 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mancini
• Techniques used in Film Music Updated Oct 11 1998. Retrieved 05/23/06
  Judy Robertson http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~judyr/ghostwriter/music/paper/node7.html
  [1] A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element or a dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel.