Zbigniew Preisner (; born 20 May 1955 as Zbigniew Antoni Kowalski) is a Polish

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, best known for his work with

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

Krzysztof Kieślowski Krzysztof Kieślowski (, 27 June 1941 – 14 March 1996) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. He is known internationally for ''Dekalog'' (1989), ''The Double Life of Veronique'' (1991), and the Three Colours trilogy, ''Three Colours'' ...

. He is the recipient of the Gold

Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis The Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture () or Gloria Artis Medal, is a departmental decoration of Poland in arts awarded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland to persons and organizations for distinguish ...

as well as the Knight's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

. He is a member of the French Film Academy.

Life

Zbigniew Preisner was born in

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...

, southern Poland, and studied history and philosophy at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself music by listening and transcribing parts from records. His compositional style represents a distinctively sparse form of tonal

neo-Romantic The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism. It has been used ...

ism. Paganini and

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...

are acknowledged influences.

Career

Preisner is best known for the music composed for the films directed by fellow Pole Krzysztof Kieślowski. His ''Song for the Unification of Europe'', based on the Greek text of

1 Corinthians 13 The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in Co ...

, is attributed to a character in Kieślowski's '' Three Colors: Blue'' and plays a dominating role in the story. His music for '' Three Colors: Red'' includes a setting of Polish and French versions of a poem by

Wisława Szymborska Maria Wisława Anna SzymborskaVioletta Szostagazeta.pl, 9 February 2012. ostęp 11 February 2012 (; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish people, Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Liter ...

, a Polish

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

-winning poet. After working with Kieślowski on '' Three Colors: Blue'', Preisner was hired by the producer

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola ( ; born April 7, 1939) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. List of awards and nominations received by Francis Ford Coppo ...

to write the score for ''

The Secret Garden ''The Secret Garden'' is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in ''The American Magazine'' (November 1910 – August 1911). Set in England, it is seen as a classic of English c ...

'', directed by Polish director

Agnieszka Holland Agnieszka Holland (; born 28 November 1948) is a Polish film and television director and screenwriter, best known for her cultural and political contributions to Polish cinema. She began her career as an assistant to directors Krzysztof Zanuss ...

. Although Preisner is most closely associated with Kieślowski, he has collaborated with several other directors, winning a César in 1996 for his work on Jean Becker's '' Élisa''. He has won a number of other awards, including another César in 1994 for '' Three Colors: Red'', and the

Silver Bear The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

from the

47th Berlin International Film Festival The 47th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 February 1997. The Golden Bear was awarded to Canadian-American film '' The People vs. Larry Flynt'' directed by Miloš Forman. The retrospective dedicated to Austrian f ...

1997 for ''

The Island on Bird Street ''The Island on Bird Street'' (; ''The Island on Birds Street'') is a 1981 semi-autobiographical children's literature, children's book by Israelis, Israeli author Uri Orlev (אורי אורלב), which tells the story of a young boy, Alex, and ...

''. He was nominated for

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Januar ...

awards for his scores for '' Three Colors: Blue'' (1993) and At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991). In 1998, '' Requiem for My Friend'', Preisner's first large scale work not written for film, premiered. It was originally intended as a narrative work to be written by

Krzysztof Piesiewicz Krzysztof Marek Piesiewicz (; born 25 October 1945 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish lawyer, screenwriter, and politician. From 1991 to 1993 and from 1997 to 2011 he was a member of Polish Senate. He was the head of the Social Movement (RS) or Soci ...

and directed by Kieślowski, but it became a memorial to Kieślowski after the director's death. The ''Lacrimosa'' from this Requiem appears in

Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (; born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. Malick began his career as part of the New Hollywood generation of filmmakers and received awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and ...

's '' The Tree of Life''. The ''Dies Irae'' from this Requiem appears in the film '' La Grande Bellezza'', directed by

Paolo Sorrentino Paolo Sorrentino (; ; born 31 May 1970) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and writer. He is considered one of the most prominent filmmakers of Italian cinema working today. He is known for visually striking and complex dramas and has of ...

and in the second season of the television series ''

The Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

''. Preisner composed the theme music for the ''

People's Century ''People's Century'' is a television documentary series examining the 20th century. It was a joint production of the BBC in the United Kingdom and PBS member station WGBH-TV, WGBH Boston in the United States. The series was first shown on BBC in ...

'', a monumental 26-part

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

made jointly in 1994 by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television network in United Kingdom and the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

television network in the United States. He has also worked with director

Thomas Vinterberg Thomas Vinterberg (; born 19 May 1969) is a Danish film director who, along with Lars von Trier, co-founded the Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, which established rules for simplifying movie production. He is best known for the films '' The Cele ...

on the 2003 film ''

It's All About Love ''It's All About Love'' is a 2003 English-language Danish romance-drama film written and directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Its narrative can be classified as apocalyptic science fiction, but Vinterberg prefers to call it "a dream". Unlike the dire ...

''. He provided orchestration for

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

's 2006 album ''

On An Island ''On an Island'' is the third solo studio album by Pink Floyd member David Gilmour. It was released in the UK on 6 March 2006, Gilmour's 60th birthday, and in the United States the following day. It was his first solo album in 22 years s ...

'' as well as additional orchestrations for the show at Gdańsk shipyards at which he also conducted the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, this was documented on the album '' Live in Gdańsk'' (2008). ''Silence, Night and Dreams'' is Zbigniew Preisner's new recording project, a large-scale work for orchestra, choir and soloists, based on texts from the

Book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

. The premier recording, was released in 2007 with the lead singer of

Madredeus Madredeus () are a Portuguese musical ensemble formed in 1985, in Lisbon. Their music combines traditional Portuguese music, fado and folk music. Madredeus are one of the most successful music groups from Portugal, having sold over 3 million al ...

Teresa Salgueiro Maria Teresa de Almeida Salgueiro OIH () is a Portuguese singer. She is best known as the lead singer of Madredeus from 1987 until 2007. She also appeared in Wim Wenders' film '' Lisbon Story.'' Career Salgueiro joined Madredeus after other ...

and boy soprano Thomas Cully from Libera.

Van den Budenmayer

Van den Budenmayer is a fictitious 18th-century Dutch composer created by Preisner and director

for attributions in screenplays. Preisner said Van den Budenmayer is a pseudonym he and Kieślowski invented "because we both loved the Netherlands". Music "by" the Dutch composer plays a role in three Kieślowski films. The first is ''

Dekalog ''Dekalog'' (, also known as ''Dekalog: The Ten Commandments'' and ''The Decalogue'') is a 1989 Polish drama television miniseries directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and co-written by Kieślowski with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, with music by Zbigni ...

'' (1988). The second is '' Three Colours: Blue'' (1993) in which a theme from his ''musique funebres'' is quoted in the ''Song for the Unification of Europe''. Its E minor soprano solo prefigured in the earlier film '' The Double Life of Veronique'' (1991), where circumstances in the story prevent the solo from finishing. The third is '' Three Colours: Red'' (1994).

Works

Orchestral works

* '' Requiem for my friend'' (1998) * ''Life'' (1998) * ''Silence, Night and Dreams'' (2007) * ''

On an Island ''On an Island'' is the third solo studio album by Pink Floyd member David Gilmour. It was released in the UK on 6 March 2006, Gilmour's 60th birthday, and in the United States the following day. It was his first solo album in 22 years s ...

'' (2006) (a

album for which Preisner composed orchestrations for many tracks) * '' Live in Gdańsk'' (September 22, 2008) (a David Gilmour live album) * ''Diaries Of Hope'' (2013) * ''

Rattle That Lock ''Rattle That Lock'' is the fourth solo studio album by the English musician David Gilmour. It was released on 18 September 2015 via Columbia Records. The artwork for the album was created by Dave Stansbie from The Creative Corporation under th ...

'' (2015) (another David Gilmour album for which Preisner provided orchestrations)

Music for solo instruments

* '' 10 Easy Pieces for Piano'' (2000)
Performed by

Leszek Możdżer Leszek Możdżer (Polish pronunciation: born Lesław Henryk Możdżer, 23 March 1971, Gdańsk) is a Polish jazz pianist, music producer and film score composer. Life and career Możdżer was born on 23 March 1971 in Gdańsk. He began to play t ...

* ''10 Pieces for Orchestra'' (2015)
Performed by The Symphonic Orchestra of the Calisia Philharmonic

Theatre

*''Das Begräbnis (The Funeral)'' (2010)
a play by

and Mogens Rukov

Film scores

*'' Prognoza pogody'' (1981) *'' Bez konca'' (1985) *'' Lubie nietoperze'' (1986) *'' Przez dotyk'' (1986) *'' The Lullabye'' (1987) *'' Ucieczka'' (1987) *''

To Kill a Priest ''To Kill a Priest'' is a 1988 drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film tells a story based on the murder, under the Polish Communist regime, of the priest Jerzy Popiełuszko. It stars Christopher Lambert as a fictionalized version of ...

'' (1988) *'' A Short Film About Killing'' (1988) *'' A Short Film About Love'' (1988) *'' Kocham kino'' (1988) *''

'' (1988-9) *'' Ostatni dzwonek'' (1989) *''

Europa Europa ''Europa Europa'' (, lit., "Hitler Youth Salomon") is a 1990 historical war drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland, and starring Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, Hanns Zischler, and André Wilms. It is based on the 1989 autobiography of ...

'' (1990) *''

Eminent Domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

'' (1991) *'' The Double Life of Véronique'' (1991) *'' At Play in the Fields of the Lord'' (1991) *'' Zwolnieni z zycia'' (1992) *'' Olivier, Olivier'' (1992) *''

Damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

'' (1992) *'' Three Colors: Blue'' (1993) *''

'' (1993) *'' On the Edge of the Horizon'' (1993) *'' Desire in Motion (Mouvements du désir)'' (1994) *'' Kouarteto se 4 kiniseis'' (1994) *'' Three Colors: White'' (1994) *'' When a Man Loves a Woman'' (1994) *'' Three Colors: Red'' (1994) *'' Feast of July'' (1995) *'' Élisa'' (1995) *'' Foolish Heart'' (1996) *'' FairyTale: A True Story'' (1997) *''

'' (1997) *'' The Last September'' (1999) *'' Dreaming of Joseph Lees'' (1999) *''

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

'' (2000) *''

Weiser Weiser may refer to: Places * Weiser Airpark, a defunct aerodrome in Texas * Weiser, Idaho * Weiser State Forest * Weiser Township, North Dakota * Weiser River People * Conrad Weiser (1696–1760), German pioneer * Grethe Weiser (1903–1970), Ger ...

'' (2001) *'' Between Strangers'' (2002) *''

'' (2003) *'' Strange Gardens'' (2003) *'' Kolysanka'' (2003) *'' SuperTex'' (2003) *'' The Beautiful Country'' (2004) *'' Sportsman of the Century'' (2006) *'' Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin'' (2008) *'' The Tree of Life'' (2011) (1 track) *'' Aglaja'' (2012) *'' La grande bellezza'' (2013) (1 track) *'' Lost and Love'' (2015) *'' Lies We Tell'' (2017) *'' Valley of Shadows'' (2017) *''

Man of God A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the father ...

'' (2021)

References

External links

Zbigniew Preisner official site

Representative company of Zbigniew Preisner in Greece and Cyprus

Interview with Preisner
with director Edoardo Ponti. * *
Television Interview with Preisner
from C Music TV.
Preisner İnfo
from musicolog.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Preisner, Zbigniew 1955 births 20th-century Polish classical composers 21st-century Polish classical composers EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists Living people Polish male film score composers Musicians from Bielsko-Biała Polish film score composers Polish male classical composers 20th-century Polish male musicians 21st-century Polish male musicians César Award winners