Henry Mancini
Music from the 1960's | By: Alejandra Martinez
this image is from http://www.henrymancini.com/
Who was he?
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and musician. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio on April 16, 1924. he was introduced to music and the flute when he was 8 years old, his father, Quinto, being a great flutist. The family moved to Aliquippa, Pennsylvania where at the age of 12 he took up piano, and in a few years became interested in arranging. After graduating from high school in 1942 Mancini enrolled in the New York's Julliard School of Music but his studies were interrupted the next year when he was drafted, leading overseas service in the Air Force and later in the infantry. In 1946 Mancini joined the Glenn Miller-Tex Beneke Orchestra as a pianist/arranger. It was there that he met the future Mrs.Mancini, Ginny O'Connor, who was one of the original members of Mel Torme's "Mel Tones". Ginny and Henry were married the following year in Hollywood. They had 3 children together: Monica, Chris, and Felice. He died at the age of 70 on June 14, 1994 in Los Angeles, California.
Film Music
Henry Mancini also composed and conducted music for many films. Such as "Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961, or "Charade" in 1963, or even the famous "The Pink Panther" also in 1963. There were tons more films he wrote music for, and he really enjoyed doing it. All throughout the 1960s and even before and after that time, Henry Mancini wrote and conducted music for many films. These productions were so good, that they even won awards! Which leads us to our next topic...
Awards
Henry Mancini won 20 Grammys, had 72 nominations, 4 Academy awards, had 8 nominations, won a Golden Globe Award, and also an Outer Critics Circle Award. Henry Mancini won a few Grammys in the 1960s, 1 of which was the instrumental version of his "Moon River" performed by himself and his orchestra in 1961. Another was a song called "Days of Wine and Roses" from the movie "Days of Wine and Roses. This song was performed by himself and his orchestra in 1963 and was written by himself and Johnny Mercer. The famous Pink Panther Theme also won a Grammy in 1965 for Best Instrumental Composition which is an award presented to the composer of an original piece of music which coincidentally was a new award at the time and was first awarded in the year 1960. Henry Mancini won many other awards during the time of the 1960s for some very excellent pieces.
Want to know more?
If you want to know more, I suggest you visit the site: http://www.henrymancini.com/ which contains a lot of interesting information along with a gallery of photos and videos. If you want to watch a video, I recommend to watch the video Henry has about Musical Education. The statistics included in this video are very old, but everything else he says I consider interesting and even more so true. This video talks about the importance of musical education and the lack of it these days. I hope you enjoy it as I did!