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
