[Fmpro] Mancini's The Thornbirds

[Claude Castonguay]

Hi everyone,

just read Mark Holden's article in Film Music Weekly about Henry  
Mancini's work on the 1983 Thornbirds series. We learn in this  
article that it was Mancini's work that he was most proud of. I sure  
am going to check this out. Thanks for the new perspective on the  
Thornbirds Mark, last impression i had of this show was thinking, "  
Hey another sappy show my mom loves to watch", i was about 17 at the  
time and had noticed Rachel Ward but not much else...

I have a personal(well sort of) anecdote about Mancini.

I used to study Jazz Harmony with a pianist here in Montreal who's  
name was Kenny Alexander. He was a personal friend of Mancini's and  
that week Kenny had given me for assignment to reharmonize Days of  
Wine and Roses, i had worked hard and Kenny was proud of me so we  
took a break and he started telling me that the weekend before he had  
gone to New York to visit his friend Mancini. He said that when he  
got there, Mancini was sitting with score paper on his lap and  
invited him to sit and chat with him while he finished something he  
had to do.

So while they were doing some catching up as old friends, talking,  
laughing, the whole time Mancini was writing notes on the score. It  
lasted about 30 minutes, when Mancini stopped writing, Kenny asked  
what where you doing, Mancini told him, oh i had to write(and  
orchestrate) a theme for a new show i'm doing, it's called Hotel...

Apparently, it was not rare at all for Mancini to work this way...

Definitely not the way mere mortals like myself work = ; o )


Best,

Claude