Polish Film Music?
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Poland is a country that has spawned many great composers, both classical and film.
I have a bunch of favourites myself, but what are some of yours?
The obvious ones come to mind right now: Kilar primarily and Preisner I do like but are not that familiar with the general work. I like Debski’s Ogniem i mieczem but that’s also the only score I know. And also Komeda needs to be mentioned although he is not really favorite of mine.
As far as film music goes, the first two that came to my mind, Preisner and Kilar.
Wojciech Kilar is one of my favorites, he’s just a terrific composer, not just film. I also have and enjoy film scores by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek and Krzysztof Komeda… I think Krzysztof Penderecki has composed a few film scores, but I’m not familiar with any of them. Wasn’t Bronisław Kaper originally from Poland? Ah, he was, indeed… (I just googled it… unless Google lied to me again. 🙂 ) Though I connect Kaper with the Hollywood Golden Age.Right, Kaczmarek needs to be on this list. Kaper for me is also a Hollywood composer. Just like I hardly consider Waxman or even Zimmer really as “German” composers anymore.
Well, many consider and mention John Barry as a “British Composer”, even though he worked a lot in Hollywood and actually had American Citizenship, so I consider Zimmer, who does not even have American Citizenship, German, even though he works a lot in Hollywood.
A lot of higher end talent eventually ends up in Hollywood, as that’s where the money is, and often more creative freedom.I remember in an interview where Roland Emmerich where he was quite frustrated with the German film industry and said he just can’t do the movies he wants to do in Germany.
If I had to chose a favourite polish film composer I would pick Abel Korzeniowski.
Love his A Single Man, Penny Dreadful, W.E. and Till.
Was never a huge fan of his most popular scores Romeo and Juliet and Kopernikus Star though.But I like his laconic style.
I’ve got two Abel Korzeniowski scores, TILL and THE WATCHERS, though I’m not really familiar with them yet. They ended up in my collection, but I have not given them a listen yet.
I’ve got two Abel Korzeniowski scores, TILL and THE WATCHERS, though I’m not really familiar with them yet. They ended up in my collection, but I have not given them a listen yet.
His best are in my view really “A Single Man”, W.E.”, “Escape From Tomorrow” and “Penny Dreadful”.
Good entries so far!
I think I’ve made it clear how much I love Preisner. Currently 5th place in my top 10 film composers list. Have 24 of his albums currently, with VALLEY OF SHADOWS being the favourite.
Korzeniowski was hot some 10-15 years ago, when post-minimalist romanticism was all the rage. Worth checking out are EARLY WORKS, METROPOLIS, PU-239, A SINGLE MAN, COPERNICUS STAR, W.E., ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW and ROMEO AND JULIET. Haven’t been that thrilled with his work in the last 10 years or so.
I had trouble getting into Kaczmarek for a while, but have since embraced several of his scores, including BLISS, UNFAITHFUL, FINDING NEVERLAND, GUERRA E PACE and LEONIE.
Maciek Dobrowolski was a young composer I hung out with at the Krakow film music festival several years ago. His CLOCKWISE is excellent, but haven’t kept up to date on his work since.
Let’s not forget Michal Lorenc, especially BANDYTA and BLOOD & WINE (with Jack Nicholson!).
Obviously Kilar, with DRACULA, KÖNIG DER LETZEN TAGE, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY and THE NINTH GATE being favourites, but those are all his most famous. Would love to check out some of his lesser known stuff. I remember some of them being played at one of the Krakow festivals I attended, where he was also in attendance.
I know that Penderecki wrote a few scores for Polish films, but I’ve never heard any of them — only the million times his concert music has been used in films. What about Gorecki and Lutoslawski? Did they write any film scores?
Gorecki not as far as I know, I think Lutoslawski did very early in his career, though not for any “important” feature films, and not later in life.
Francis Ford-Coppola wanted that “Eastern European avant-gardish classical” sound for his Dracula movie, and he asked Lutoslawski, who told Coppola it takes him way too long to write a single minute of music to be commissioned for a film score. That’s how Coppola came to Kilar, who not only belonged to the Polish “triumvirate” (Penderecki, Gorecki, Kilar), but was also an experienced film composer.
Yeah, I remember the story going something like that. And then later on, all the shenanigans about Kilar possibly doing LOTR (maybe for similar reasons?).
Obviously Kilar, with DRACULA, KÖNIG DER LETZEN TAGE, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY and THE NINTH GATE being favourites, but those are all his most famous. Would love to check out some of his lesser known stuff. I remember some of them being played at one of the Krakow festivals I attended, where he was also in attendance.
I have this compilation by Milan that is from the time around Dracula because two tracks are on it. But also lots of older Polish movies:
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/1426773-Wojciech-Kilar-A-Collection-Of-His-WorkHis theme often remind me of Morricone.
The first time I noticed Wojciech Kilar was from the French animated movie Le Roi et l’Oiseau. That movie has as an interesting production history, as it started in 1948 but it wasn’t until the early 1980s that it was actually finished. It’s a wonderful film, quite different from the more prominent Disney animated features. I still got the original soundtrack LP from the 1980s.
I loved Kilar’s music for this, and (in some concert guide books we had, this was way before the internet) found out he was at that time also a know concert composer.
So my first encounter with Kilar’s music was for an enchanting fairy tale animated movie.
Years later, I was excited when I saw his name on the then upcoming Coppola Dracula movie.
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