Moon River
Henry Mancini
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Browse piano sheets by Henry Mancini on Zen Virtual Piano. Henry Mancini was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 16 April 1924 and was introduced to music and the flute at the age of eight by his father, Quinto, an avid flutist. The family moved to Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, where at age 12 he took up piano and, within a few years, became interested in arranging. A flute introduced by his father at eight and a piano taken up at twelve mark the start of his instrumental life. After graduating from high school in 1942 he enrolled at New York’s Juilliard School of Music, but his studies were interrupted the next year when he was drafted, leading to overseas service in the Air Force and later in the infantry. In 1946 he joined the Glenn Miller-Tex Beneke Orchestra as a pianist and arranger, and it was there that he met Ginny O’Connor, one of the original members of Mel Tormé’s Mel-Tones. Joining an orchestra as pianist and arranger in 1946 shows that shaping other people’s music was part of his work early on. He left Universal-International in 1958 to work as an independent composer and arranger, and soon after he scored the television series Peter Gunn for the writer and producer Blake Edwards, the genesis of a close relationship that lasted over 30 years and produced 26 films. He has said, “Writing popular melodies is more of an approach,” and added, “more of a real discipline than anything else. I had to make a kind of a break-through in learning how to write a simple melody.” Calling melody-writing a discipline, and describing a break-through in learning to write a simple melody, shows how deliberately he approached it. Criterion’s essay on his work says that his most iconic pieces, from the mod-burlesque intrigue of the Peter Gunn and Pink Panther themes to the wistful reflection of “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, share a subtle insight along with a strong personal flair. A strong personal flair running through such different pieces suggests a recognisable voice. He was nominated for 72 Grammy Awards, winning 20, and for 18 Academy Awards, winning four, and he wrote two books, Sounds and Scores, a practical guide to professional orchestration, and his autobiography, Did They Mention The Music? A guide to orchestration beside an autobiography titled with a question about the music suggests a composer who explained his craft as readily as he practised it.
Browse piano sheets by Henry Mancini on Zen Virtual Piano.
Henry Mancini was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 16 April 1924 and was introduced to music and the flute at the age of eight by his father, Quinto, an avid flutist. The family moved to Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, where at age 12 he took up piano and, within a few years, became interested in arranging. A flute introduced by his father at eight and a piano taken up at twelve mark the start of his instrumental life.
After graduating from high school in 1942 he enrolled at New York’s Juilliard School of Music, but his studies were interrupted the next year when he was drafted, leading to overseas service in the Air Force and later in the infantry. In 1946 he joined the Glenn Miller-Tex Beneke Orchestra as a pianist and arranger, and it was there that he met Ginny O’Connor, one of the original members of Mel Tormé’s Mel-Tones. Joining an orchestra as pianist and arranger in 1946 shows that shaping other people’s music was part of his work early on.
He left Universal-International in 1958 to work as an independent composer and arranger, and soon after he scored the television series Peter Gunn for the writer and producer Blake Edwards, the genesis of a close relationship that lasted over 30 years and produced 26 films. He has said, “Writing popular melodies is more of an approach,” and added, “more of a real discipline than anything else. I had to make a kind of a break-through in learning how to write a simple melody.” Calling melody-writing a discipline, and describing a break-through in learning to write a simple melody, shows how deliberately he approached it.
Criterion’s essay on his work says that his most iconic pieces, from the mod-burlesque intrigue of the Peter Gunn and Pink Panther themes to the wistful reflection of “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, share a subtle insight along with a strong personal flair. A strong personal flair running through such different pieces suggests a recognisable voice. He was nominated for 72 Grammy Awards, winning 20, and for 18 Academy Awards, winning four, and he wrote two books, Sounds and Scores, a practical guide to professional orchestration, and his autobiography, Did They Mention The Music? A guide to orchestration beside an autobiography titled with a question about the music suggests a composer who explained his craft as readily as he practised it.
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In Cleveland, Ohio, on 16 April 1924. His father, Quinto, an avid flutist, introduced him to music and the flute at age eight.
Peter Gunn. Soon after leaving Universal-International in 1958, Mancini scored the series, the genesis of a close relationship with Edwards that lasted over 30 years and produced 26 films.
He was nominated for 72 Grammy Awards, winning 20, and for 18 Academy Awards, winning four.