Nbc nightly news theme henry mancini biography

American film composer (–)

Henry Mancini
Mancini c.&#;
Birth name	Enrico Nicola Mancini
Born	()April 16, Maple Heights, Ohio, U.S.
Died	June 14, () (aged&#;70) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres
Occupations	Composer songwriter arranger conductor
Instrument	Piano
Years active	–

Musical artist

Henry Mancini (man-SEE-nee; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, – June 14, )^[1] was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist.

Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film,^[2][3] he won four Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in

His works include the theme and soundtrack for the Peter Gunn television series as well as the music for The Pink Panther film series ("The Pink Panther Theme") and "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

The Music from Peter Gunn won the inaugural Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Mancini enjoyed a long collaboration in composing film scores for the film director Blake Edwards. Mancini also scored a No. 1 hit single during the rock era on the Hot his arrangement and recording of the "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" spent two weeks at the top, starting with the week ending June 28,

Early life

Henry Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini in Maple Heights, Ohio, and raised in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.^[4][5] Both his parents were Italian immigrants.

Originally from Scanno, Abruzzo, his father Quintiliano "Quinto" Mancini was a laborer at the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company and amateur player who first came to the U.S. as a teenager around ^[7] His mother Anna (née&#;Pece) came to the U.S.

from Forlì del Sannio, Molise, as an infant.

At age eight, Mancini began learning the piccolo.^[9] Mancini said that hearing Rudolph G. Kopp's score in the Cecil B. DeMille film The Crusades inspired him to pursue movie music composition despite his father's wishes for him to get a teacher.^[11]

At age 12, he began studying piano and orchestral arrangement under Pittsburgh concert pianist and Stanley Theatre (now Benedum Center) conductor Max Adkins.

Not only did Mancini produce arrangements for the Stanley Theatre bands, but he also wrote an arrangement for Benny Goodman, an up-and-coming bandleader introduced to him by Adkins.^[5] According to Mancini biographer John Caps, the juvenile Mancini "preferred music arranging to any kind of musical recital, but taking apart a Chopinmazurka or Schumannsonata in order to play it helped him seehow the puzzle of form, meter, melody, harmony, and counterpoint had been solved by previous composers."

After graduating from Aliquippa High Academy in , Mancini first attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh.^[14][15] Later that year, Mancini transferred to the Juilliard College of Music in New York City following a successful audition in which he performed a Beethoven sonata and improvisation on "Night and Day" by Cole Porter.^[5] Because he could only take orchestration and composition courses in his second year, Mancini studied only piano in his first year at Juilliard, in a condition Caps called "aimless and oppressed—a far cry from Adkins's enabling protective environment."

After turning 18, Mancini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in While in basic development in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he met musicians being recruited by Glenn Miller.

Owing to a recommendation by Miller, Mancini was first assigned to the 28th Air Force Band before being reassigned overseas to the th Engineers Brigade in France. In , he helped liberate the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.

Career

Newly discharged from the military, Mancini entered the music industry.

In , he became a pianist and arranger for the newly re-formed Glenn Miller Orchestra, led by 'Everyman' Tex Beneke. After World War II, Mancini broadened his skills in composition, counterpoint, harmony and orchestration during studies, opening with the composers Ernst Krenek and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

In , Mancini joined Universal-International's song department.

During the next six years, he contributed music to over movies, most notably Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, It Came from Outer Space, Tarantula, This Island Earth, The Glenn Miller Story (for which he received his first Academy Award nomination), The Benny Goodman Story and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.

His first hit as a pop songwriter was a single by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians titled "I Won't Let You Out of My Heart".

Mancini left Universal-International to work as an independent composer/arranger in Soon afterward, he scored the television series Peter Gunn^[9] for writer/producer Blake Edwards.

This was the genesis of a relationship in which Edwards and Mancini collaborated on 30 films over 35 years. Along with Alex North, Elmer Bernstein, Leith Stevens and Johnny Mandel, Henry Mancini was a pioneer of the inclusion of jazz elements in the late sentimental orchestral film and TV scoring prevalent at the time.

Mancini's scores for Blake Edwards included Breakfast at Tiffany's (with the standard "Moon River")^[9] and Days of Wine and Roses (with the title song, "Days of Wine and Roses"), as successfully as Experiment in Terror, The Pink Panther (and all of its sequels), The Great Race, The Party, 10 (including "It's Easy to Say") and Victor Victoria.

Another director with whom Mancini had a longstanding partnership was Stanley Donen (Charade, Arabesque, Two for the Road). Mancini also composed for Howard Hawks (Man's Favorite Sport?, Hatari! – which included the "Baby Elephant Walk"), Martin Ritt (The Molly Maguires), Vittorio de Sica (Sunflower), Norman Jewison (Gaily, Gaily), Paul Newman (Sometimes a Great Notion, The Glass Menagerie), Stanley Kramer (Oklahoma Crude), George Roy Hill (The Great Waldo Pepper), Arthur Hiller (Silver Streak),Ted Kotcheff (Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?), and others.

Mancini's score for the Alfred Hitchcock film Frenzy () in Bachian organ andante, for organ and an orchestra of strings was rejected and replaced by Ron Goodwin's work.

Mancini scored many TV movies, including The Moneychangers, The Thorn Birds and The Shadow Box.

He wrote many television themes, including Mr. Lucky (starring John Vivyan and Ross Martin),^[20]NBC Mystery Movie,Tic Tac Dough ( version),^[22]Once Is Not Enough, and What's Happening!! In the –85 television season, four series featured original Mancini themes: Newhart, Hotel, Remington Steele, and Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Mancini also composed the "Viewer Mail" theme for Late Night with David Letterman. Mancini composed the theme for NBC Nightly News used beginning in , and a different theme by him, titled Salute to the President was used by NBC News for its election coverage (including primaries and conventions) from to Salute to the President was published only in a school-band arrangement, although Mancini performed it frequently with symphony orchestras on his concert tours.

Songs with music by Mancini were staples of the easy listening radio format from the s to the s. To advertisers, Mancini's style symbolized the bright, confident, hospitable voice of bourgeois America. Some of the artists who have recorded Mancini songs involve Duane Eddy, Andy Williams, Paul Anka, Pat Boone, Anita Bryant, Jack Jones, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Connie Francis, Eydie Gorme, Steve Lawrence, Trini Lopez, George Maharis, Johnny Mathis, Jerry Vale, Ray Conniff, Quincy Jones, The Lennon Sisters, The Lettermen, Herb Alpert, Eddie Cano, Frank Chacksfield, Warren Covington, Sarah Vaughan, Shelly Manne, James Moody, Percy Faith, Ferrante & Teicher, Horst Jankowski, Andre Kostelanetz, Peter Nero, Liberace, Mantovani, Tony Bennett, Julie London, Wayne Newton, Arthur Fiedler, Covert Agent and the Boston Pops Orchestra, Peggy Lee, and Matt Monro.

The Anita Kerr Quartet won a Grammy award () for their album We Bury Mancini, a cover of his songs. Lawrence Welk held Mancini in very high regard, and frequently featured Mancini's music on The Lawrence Welk Show (Mancini made at least two guest appearances on the show).

Mancini briefly hosted his own musical variety TV show in a similar format to Welk's, The Mancini Generation, which aired in syndication during the –73 season.

Mancini recorded over 90 albums, in styles ranging from big band to light classical to pop.

Eight of these albums were certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. He had a year contract with RCA Victor, resulting in 60 commercial record albums that made him a household name among artists of easy listening melody. Mancini's earliest recordings in the s and early s were of the jazz idiom; with the success of Peter Gunn, Mr.

Lucky, and Breakfast at Tiffany's, Mancini shifted to recording primarily his own music in record albums and film soundtracks. (Relatively little of his melody was written for recordings compared to the amount that was written for film and television.) Beginning with his hit arrangement of Nino Rota's A Day for Us (as his only Billboard Hot top 10 entry, the No.

1 hit "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet") and its accompanying album A Warm Shade of Ivory, Mancini began to function more as a piano soloist and easy-listening artist recording music primarily written by other people. In this period, for two of his best-selling albums he was unified by trumpet virtuoso and The Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen.

Among Mancini's orchestral scores are (Lifeforce, The Great Mouse Detective, Sunflower, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Molly Maguires, The Hawaiians), and darker themes (Experiment in Terror, The White Dawn, Wait Until Dark, The Night Visitor).

Mancini was also a concert performer, conducting over fifty engagements per year, resulting in over symphony performances during his lifetime. He conducted nearly all of the leading symphony orchestras of the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

One of his favorites was the Minnesota Orchestra, where he debuted the Thorn Birds Suite in June He appeared in , and in command performances for the British Royal Family. He also toured several times with Johnny Mathis and also with Andy Williams, who had both sung many of Mancini's songs; Mathis and Mancini collaborated on the album The Hollywood Musicals.

In he conducted an impromptu charity concert in London in aid of Children In Need. The concert included Tchaikovsky's Overture with firework accompaniment over the River Thames.

Cameos

Shortly before his death in , he made a one-off cameo appearance in the first season of the sitcom series Frasier, as a call-in patient to Dr.

Frasier Crane's radio show. Mancini voiced the character Al, who speaks with a melancholy drawl and hates the sound of his possess voice, in the episode "Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast?"^[25] Moments after Mancini's cameo ends, Frasier's radio broadcast plays "Moon River".

Mancini also had an uncredited performance as a pianist in the film Gunn, based on the Peter Gunn television series.

In the Pink Panther cartoon Pink, Plunk, Plink, the panther commandeered an orchestra and proceeded to conduct Mancini's theme for the series.

At the terminate, the shot switched to exceptional live action, and Mancini was seen alone applauding in the audience. Mancini also made a brief appearance in the title sequence of 's Son of the Pink Panther, allowing the panther to conduct Bobby McFerrin in performing the film's theme tune.

In at the 41st Academy Awards ceremony, Mancini played the harpsichord in a extraordinary number. Marni Nixon sang the rules for nomination in the category of Best Score of a Musical Motion Picture (Original or Adaptation), and together they sang the names of the films and musicians nominated.

Mancini was the music director of the 41st Academy Awards broadcast.^[26][27][28]

Death

Mancini died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles on June 14, ^[11] He was working at the time on the Broadway stage version of Victor/Victoria, which he never saw on stage.

Personal life

Mancini was survived by his wife of 47 years, singer Virginia "Ginny" O'Connor, with whom he had three children. She died on October 25, , at age ^[29]

Legacy

Henry Mancini created a scholarship at UCLA and some of his library and works are archived in the music library at UCLA, with additional materials preserved at the Library of Congress.^{[citation needed]}

In , the Henry Mancini Institute, an academy for young melody professionals, was founded by Jack Elliott in Mancini's honor, and was later under the route of composer-conductor Patrick Williams.

By the mids, however, the institute could not sustain itself and closed its doors on December 30, ^[30] The American Population of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Foundation "Henry Mancini Melody Scholarship" has been awarded annually since

In , the Henry Mancini Arts Academy was opened as a division of the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center.

The center is located in Midland, Pennsylvania, minutes away from Mancini's hometown of Aliquippa. The Henry Mancini Arts Academy is an evening-and-weekend performing arts program for children from pre-K to grade 12, with some classes also available for adults.

The program includes dance, voice, musical theater, and instrumental lessons.

In , the Municipality of Scanno dedicated a street to Mancini, called "Via Henry Mancini".

The American Film Institute ranked Mancini's songs "Moon River" No. 4 and "Days of Wine and Roses" No.

39 on their Years Songs list, and his score for The Pink Panther No. 20 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for Breakfast at Tiffany's (), Charade (), Hatari! (), Touch of Evil () and Wait Until Dark () were also nominated for the list.

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Henry Mancini

Mancini was nominated for 72 Grammy Awards and won He was nominated for 18 Academy Awards and won four.

He also won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for two Emmy Awards.

In , Mancini won two Academy Awards, one for "Moon River" for Best Authentic Song and one for Finest Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture for the film Breakfast at Tiffany's.

In , he won Best Original Anthem again, this time for "Days of Wine and Roses". He won Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Foremost Adaptation Score again in for the movie Victor/Victoria.^[9]

In , Mancini received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.^[33][34]

In , Mancini was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.^[35]

On April 13, , the United States Postal Service honored Mancini with a thirty-seven cent commemorative stamp.

Painted by painter Victor Stabin, the stamp shows Mancini conducting in front of a list of some of his film and television themes.^[36]

Discography

Albums

Hit singles

Ballets

• Coffee House (), written for the Gene Kelly Show

Soundtracks

Note: Most of Mancini's scores were not released on LP soundtrack albums.

His TV movie music albums were not soundtrack albums but are titled "Music from " or "Music from the Motion Picture " He routinely retained the rights to his music. Mancini's contracts allowed him to free his own albums for which he rearranged the score melody into arrangements more appropriate for listening outside of the context of the film/theater.

Actual motion picture scores using players from Hollywood unions recording under major motion picture studio contracts were high-priced to release on LP (ex: the soundtrack for Our Bloke Flint (not a Mancini score) cost $1 more than other LP albums of the day).

Many soundtrack albums used to claim "Original Soundtrack" or words to that effect, but were not necessarily the actual soundtrack recordings. These albums were usually recorded with a smaller orchestra than that used for the actual scoring (ex: Dimitri Tiomkin's score to The Alamo).

Mancini composed the theme for NBC Nightly News used beginning in , and a different theme by him, titled Salute to the President was used by NBC News for its election coverage (including primaries and conventions) from to

However, many Hollywood musicians were featured on Mancini's albums recorded in RCA's Hollywood recording studios and faux "Original Soundtrack" albums. Eventually some of his scores and faux "Original Soundtrack" scores by numerous composers were released in limited edition CDs.

Filmography

TV themes

Bibliography

References

Sources

Further reading

• Brown, Royal S. Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music ()
• Büdinger, Matthias.

  "An Interview with Henry Mancini" (Soundtrack, vol. 7, No. 26, )

• Büdinger, Matthias. "Feeling Fancy Free" (Film Score Monthly, vol. 10, No. 2)
• Büdinger, Matthias.
  Henry Mancini's works include the theme and soundtrack for the Peter Gunn television series as well as the music for The Pink Panther film series and "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Henry Mancini scored a No 1 hit single during the rock era on the Hot his arrangement and recording of the "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" spent two weeks at the top, starting with the week ending June 28, Henry Mancini later studied piano and orchestral arrangement under Pittsburgh concert pianist and Stanley Theatre conductor Max Adkins. Not only did Henry Mancini produce arrangements for the Stanley Theatre bands, but he wrote one for Benny Goodman, an up-and-coming bandleader introduced to him by Adkins.

  "Henry Mancini –" (Film Score Monthly, No. 46/47, p.&#;5

• Büdinger, Matthias. "Henry Mancini Remembered' (Soundtrack, vol. 13, No. 51)
• Büdinger, Matthias. "Henry Mancini" (Soundtrack, vol.

  13, No. 50, )

• Büdinger, Matthias.
  Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of motion picture, [ 2 ] [ 3 ] he won four Academy Awardsa Golden Globeand twenty Grammy Awardsplus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in Mancini enjoyed a long collaboration in composing film scores for the motion picture director Blake Edwards. Mancini also scored a No. At age eight, Mancini began learning the piccolo.

  "Whistling Away the Dark" (Film Score Monthly, No. 45, p.&#;7

• Larson, Randall. "Henry Mancini: On Scoring 'Lifeforce' and 'Santa Claus'" (interview) (CinemaScore, No. 15, )
• Thomas, Tony. Music for the Movies ()
• Thomas, Tony.

  Film Score ()

External links