In 1983, The Thorn Birds was first broadcast and became a classic, featuring one of Hank’s most beautiful themes and compelling scores. This new two-disc CD deluxe encore edition was released on May 2 with wonderful notes by Jon Burlingame.
Henry Mancini's Crowning Achievement for Television
Henry Mancini, who won four Oscars and 20 Grammy Awards during a 42-year career in film and TV music, never won an Emmy—a surprising statistic considering his importance to the medium, including best-selling themes for Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky, scores for longform TV including The Moneychangers, and his many popular signature tunes for series including the NBC Mystery Movie, Newhart and Remington Steele.
The veteran composer was nominated, and most observers agree should have won that elusive Emmy, for his unforgettable score for The Thorn Birds. Airing over four nights in March 1983, the 10-hour David L. Wolper production for ABC was a superbly realized adaptation of Colleen McCullough's best seller, winning six Emmys (nominated for 10 more) and capturing the biggest audience for any miniseries since Roots.
Richard Chamberlain, in one of his best-remembered roles, played the tormented priest Ralph de Bricassart, whose conflicting passions for the Catholic Church and the beautiful Meggie Cleary (Rachel Ward) play out in mid-20th-century Australia. Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Kiley and Jean Simmons won Emmys for their supporting roles; Bryan Brown and Christopher Plummer were also featured.
Mancini composed approximately four hours of music for The Thorn Birds, the most ever for a single project in his entire career. He was hired months before shooting began because of the source-music requirements that ranged from traditional Australian folk tunes to choral music for the several church sequences.
Despite his extensive research into the music of Australia, he struggled to find a main theme that would introduce the Outback at the start of part one. As he later recalled: "I couldn't find anything that didn't sound like it came out of early Nashville or the country gardens in England or the hills of Scotland. It was all very simple folk music."
Finally, he came up with a Thorn Birds theme: a lilting piece with folk overtones reflective of the Clearys' Irish roots. He added a dulcimer to the main title, as Father Ralph is driving along dirt roads to the Drogheda ranch. He had heard a dulcimer (an instrument he had not previously used in any of his many scores) in an album of regional folk music. "I used it for the first notes in the main theme and I think it sets the Australian tone of the piece," he explained at the time.
Meggie's theme, the other major theme in the Thorn Birds score, turned out to be one of his most romantic, but also bittersweet, befitting her complex relationship with Ralph over the years. In addition, Mancini wrote two major set pieces that later became a part of his concert suite from the score: a rousing four-minute cue for the sheep-shearing contest in part two ("It's Shearing You're Hearing") and a grand orchestral fanfare to accompany the arrival of Father Ralph at the Vatican that was heard at the end of that episode.
Mancini also penned a theme for Meggie's marriage to Luke O'Neill and their life in Queensland, music of high drama for the fire that devastated Drogheda in part two, and a Greek-flavored theme for Meggie's children Dane and Justine frolicking on the beach prior to a tragic incident in part four.
The composer's arrangement of Meggie's theme for her holiday on secluded Matlock Island (with piano and organ embellishment) and his lush string arrangement for Ralph's arrival made those already romantic moments at the end of part three even more memorable. And his music for the conclusion of part four—as a dying Ralph spends his final moments with Meggie—turned a sad finale into one of shattering proportions. Henry Mancini's score elevated The Thorn Birds to all-time classic status and remains among his most treasured works.
— Jon Burlingame