Henry Mancini

Through film composer Henry Mancini, mere background music in movies became part of pop culture—an expression of sophistication and wit with a modern sense of cool and a lasting lyricism that has not dated. This, the first comprehensive study of Mancini's music, describes how the composer served as a bridge between the Big Band period of World War II and the impatient eclecticism of the Baby Boomer generation, between the grand formal orchestral film scores of the past and a modern American minimalist approach. Mancini's sound seemed to capture the bright, confident, welcoming voice of the middle class's new efficient life: interested in pop songs and jazz, in movie and television, in outreach politics but also conventional stay-at-home comforts. As the book shows, Mancini easily combined it all in his music. He wielded influence in Hollywood and around the world with his iconic scores: dynamic jazz for the noirish detective TV show Peter Gunn, the sly theme from The Pink Panther, and his wistful folk song Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Through insightful close readings of key films, the book traces Mancini's collaborations with important directors and shows how he homed in on specific dramatic or comic aspects of the film to create musical effects through clever instrumentation, eloquent musical gestures, and meaningful resonances and continuities in his scores.