Theme Music – MuseScore https://musescore.com/news Music news, analysis, and education from MuseScore.com Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:57:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://i0.wp.com/wpnews.musescore.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-cover_85.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Theme Music – MuseScore https://musescore.com/news 32 32 253427791 Mancini Wrote ‘The Pink Panther Theme’ Around a Specific Saxophonist Before the Part Was Finished https://musescore.com/news/features/mancini-wrote-the-pink-panther-theme-around-a-specific-saxophonist-before-the-part-was-finished/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:57:48 +0000 https://musescore.com/news/?p=2733 A side-by-side split image. On the left is a classic cartoon illustration of the Pink Panther, standing with arms crossed against a solid pink background. On the right is a vintage photograph of composer Henry Mancini in a recording studio, wearing headphones and holding a conductor's baton while gesturing with his hand to his chest.

Mancini scored the 1963 Blake Edwards film with David Niven's suave jewel thief in mind, not the cartoon cat that came later. The opening ostinato mimics a tiptoe, the chromaticism behaves like a man climbing in through a window, and the saxophone part was written around Plas Johnson's tendency to drag a phrase a hair behind the beat.]]> 2733 How Schifrin’s Bass Line Makes 5/4 Flow in ‘Mission: Impossible’ https://musescore.com/news/features/how-schifrins-bass-line-makes-5-4-flow-in-mission-impossible/ Wed, 27 May 2026 15:00:00 +0000 https://musescore.com/news/?p=2703 The theme composer Lalo Schrifin and Tom Cruise in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible

Back in 1966, Lalo Schifrin handed CBS a theme written in 5/4, and somehow nobody at the network asked him to fix it. Six decades later, almost every composer who has touched the franchise has kept the meter intact.]]> 2703