A practical guide to professional orchestration featuring recorded musical examples performed by Henry Mancini. Included in the book are sections on the woodwinds, brass, the rhythm section and the string section. A recording is included to follow along with the printed scores.

Best known for the "dead-ant" theme to the Pink Panther films, Henry Mancini also composed the music to Peter Gunn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, and the Academy Award winning soundtracks to Victor/Victoria and The Days of Wine and Roses. In a career that lasted over thirty years, Mancini amassed twenty Grammy awards and more nominations than any other composer. In his memoir, written with jazz expert Lees, Mancini discusses his close friendships with Blake Edwards, Julie Andrews, and Paul Newman, his professional collaborations with Johnny Mercer, Luciano Pavarotti, and James Galway, and his achievements as a husband, father, and grandfather. A great memoir loaded with equal parts Hollywood glitz and Italian gusto.

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. The first comprehensive study of Mancini's music, Henry Mancini: Reinventing Film 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 John Caps shows, Mancini easily combined it all in his music. Mancini 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, Caps 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. Accessible and engaging, this fresh view of Mancini's oeuvre and influence will delight and inform fans of film and popular music. John Caps is an award-winning writer and producer of documentaries. He served as producer, writer, and host for four seasons of the National Public Radio syndicated series The Cinema Soundtrack, featuring interviews with and music of film composers. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland. A volume in the series Music in American Life

(Piano Solo Composer Collection). Piano solo arrangements of more than 30 magnificent Mancini hits! Includes: Baby Elephant Walk * Breakfast at Tiffany's * Charade * Crazy World * Days of Wine and Roses * How Soon * Moon River * Newhart Main Title Theme * Peter Gunn * The Pink Panther * A Shot in the Dark * The Thorn Birds (Main Theme) * Two for the Road * Whistling Away the Dark * and more.

The arrangements on the CD feature a jazz trio and, in some cases, a full orchestra. All books are compatible with each other and are playable in any instrumental combination. Titles include: Baby Elephant Walk * Breakfast at Tiffany's * Days of Wine and Roses * Le Jazz Hot! * Moon River * Peter Gunn * The Pink Panther and more.

(Easy Piano Composer Collection). Easy arrangements of 22 classics by Academy Award- and Grammy Award-winning composer Henry Mancini. Songs include: Baby Elephant Walk * Charade * The Days of Wine and Roses * Dear Heart * Inspector Clouseau Theme * Moon River * Peter Gunn * The Pink Panther * Whistling Away the Dark * The Thorn Birds * and more.