One of the greatest film music composers of all time, Henry Mancini, declared that"...melody is the soul of communication with people. As far as entertainment goes..." Mancini was born 100 years ago this year. Fordives into the life and work of the man who wrote Moon River – the unmistakable and Oscar-winning theme to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which starred Audrey Hepburn.
The programme tells Henry Mancini's story from his early life as the son of Italian immigrants in Pittsburgh where he was first handed a flute by his father, through his years as a musician in the big bands, learning the film trade at Universal Pictures, and eventually to composing some of the most recognisable music on film.brings the best film music to Radio 3 just in time for the 2024 Academy Awards.
In the script for Breakfast at Tiffany's, there was a scene where Audrey Hepburn’s character leans out of the window and sings a song from her past. Mancini had heard Hepburn sing in the movie Funny Face, so he specifically wrote a song in her range and asked Johnny Mercer to write some words that would hint at Holly Golightly’s mysterious past.
“The first time I read that lyric, it scanned so beautifully. And when I got to 'huckleberry friend', there was no question in my mind a new word in the English language or a new phrase, let's put it that way,” Mancini explained. Those three opening notes to Moon River score one of the most memorable scenes in movie history. Mancini said he spent a month tinkering with the melody, but when it finally came to him, it took just half an hour to write the music.
A year later, Mancini would go on to win a third Oscar for his score to Days Of Wine And Roses, and a fourth in 1982 for Victor/Victoria.Discover more about Henry Mancini’s life and work, through BBC archive interviews with Mancini and those who knew him, inMichael Berkeley’s guest is the film-maker, producer and writer Mark Cousins. His documentary work includes The Story of Film, an epic 900-minute journey through the history of cinema.