Intrada Soundtrack Forum

I have a question to anyone concerning two of Mancini's lesser know filmscores. I may be wrong, but I do not believe they have ever seen a commercial CD release.

I love the theme to his "Molly Maguires" and I know there was a LP release in 1970. Saw the film a long time ago. Don't know much about the score as a whole. Is it worth a CD release???

Also, as I mentioned in the "color-in-the -title" themed posting, his "Arctic Whale Hunt" from "White Dawn" is an absolutely rousing piece of music. Track featured on Mancini in Surround CD. Many moons ago, there was, I believe, over a 10 minute suite for this score on an LP (don't remember the title). What are the chances this could become available for a CD? If it was a shorter score not meriting a full CD, a Mancini compilation?

Any ideas, anyone???

An unrelated filmscore item. Saw the first two episodes of the TV mini-series "Into the West" and one of the first things I noticed was the score. Very beautiful. Who is Geoff Zanelli??? Would I love to have this music on CD.

Both of the Mancini items mentioned above were made available on CD.
THE MOLLY MAGUIRES (Mancini's best-ever film score in my opinion) was on the Bay Cities label and (since the company went under) is very hard to find nowadays.
The ten-minute suite from THE WHITE DAWN was re-issued by RCA coupled up with another Mancini album (I forget which, and since I moved house recently I can't lay my hands on it to check - my apologies).

Henry Mancini was unique. When I first got into film music (circa 1969) there were all these albums of his floating around and they seemed kind of lightweight at times, but I still bought them. I'm glad I did, for eventually I would discover the man's genius for melody and musical inventiveness... no one has ever replaced him; no one ever can.

WHITE DAWN has no actual soundtrack album. Unfortunately, it's owned by Paramount, who currently shows no interest in licensing older soundtracks. So it's not a likely candidate in the near future, either. Mancini prepared a ten-minute concert suite for a 1975 RCA re-recording of film music he did with the London Symphony Orchestra. The suite shows up on one of the Mancini/RCA "surround" CDs, on a compilation with his arrangement of THE GODFATHER.

It's this very same RCA recording that was licensed for THE RIGHT STUFF, underscoring that famous scene of John Glen's capsule in flight. Yep, it's Mancini, not Bill Conti you hear. It's fair to say Hank (and a lot of other composers) helped Conti win that Oscar!
--Doug

"The Molly Maguires" is one of my favorite Mancini scores, and as far as I can tell, the release is the actual soundtrack, not a rerecording. In any case, it's very faithful the the music as it appeared in the film, with none of the pop-arranging that (IMHO) mars many of his RCA releases.

"The White Dawn" suite, while a concert version of the score, is still very satisfying for me, and I think the CD is actually still available at a budget price. There are several fluff cues on it, but in addition to the "White Dawn" suite there's a non-film concert piece Mancini wrote in 1969 based on his childhood memories growing up in Pennsylvania called "The Beaver Valley Suite." I was lucky enough to hear it premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra (and got Mancini's autograph on the program!). The disc is well worth the purchase price.

Mark T.

Thanks soundtrackman. Found a copy of the Mancini CD at a reasonable price. Oh to hear the White Dawn suite again after so many years. Now, if I could only find the Molly Maguries. That will be a tough one!!!!!!!!!

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