# What do you think about Henry Mancini as a movie composer?



## atsizat

He may be my second favorite movie composer after Ennio Morricone


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## SanAntone

*Henry Mancini *is an incredible craftsman, and melodist. I have a book I got decades ago by him called _Sounds and Scores_ which goes into detail the craft of professional composing and arranging for film and other projects.










It came with a 45 inch record with examples of what he was writing about.

He was one of the first composers I studied.

I had another book, by *Russell Garcia* that was even better.


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## mikeh375

I love his work. One of my favourite songs of his is 'The Shadows of Paris' from a Pink Panther score. 'Charade' too is a lovely song, as is 'Moon River' and 'A Slow Hot wind'. I could go on but instead will just say he was brilliant.

^^I have both those books SA, they are indispensable and what I learnt was put to good use over the years.


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## atsizat

Charade (1963),music composed by Henry Mancini


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## Alfacharger

Mancini's score to Lifeforce is m favorite.


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## pianozach

Well . . . um . . . Mancini writes (and arranges) some stuff that's . . . "nice". But it's all very Pop. He uses the orchestra as a rhythm section almost all the time. There's no polyphony, no polyrhythms, no development. Very little that gives his work a journey. It's merely pop music arranged for orchestra. Sometimes it has a hint of jazz. A good portion of it is of the Muzak genre. There's no "meat" in his soundtracks.

That said, his stuff is always "nicely" arranged, and he does pop out some lovely melodies. He's written some lovely songs, both instrumentals and with lyrics.


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## starthrower

He's okay. But I'm a bigger fan of one of his contemporaries, Michel Legrand. I also like Lalo Schifrin.


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## MAS

The most salient quality in Mancini’s music is, to my ears, sweetness. It’s mostly melodious, never sounding jagged. It’s romantic music for the most part. I liked most of the movies that he’s scored.


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## Manxfeeder

Here's a nice song from Darling Lili, one of his lesser known scores. At least I think it's lesser known.


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## Rogerx

Never give a real thought, I will come back though .


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## geralmar

The Molly Maguires (1970) is another worthy Mancini score:


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## Floeddie

I've always liked Henry Mancini. I am in my '70s and Mancini was a prominent feature in the pop culture of the day. He preceded John Williams by about 10 or so years as a composer of soundtrack & song music. There were a number of Mancini's songs that scored well in the top 40 of the days of AM radio. I saw many of those movies, and all were enjoyable. I recognize the difference between Mancini & Williams, but the times were a bit different in the prior decades, as were the movie stories of the day. Williams has also demonstrated the capability to compose fine CM works that are standalone, on the other hand, Mancini was a man of the Big Band & Jazz eras. So my hat is off to both of them. There is always a place in my heart for both gentlemen.


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## geralmar

Mancini's 1959 jazz score for television's Peter Gunn detective series was considered groundbreaking at the time:


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