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.
That animation movie recently was shown on arte over here but sadly I missed it. I think I first noticed Kilar with Dracula. A film where I also noticed him was Zanussi’s THE SILENT TOUCH which – as I learned later – was made around his concert work “Exodus”.
Regarding Penderecki’s scoring tasks…. Yes, he did score https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/rekopis-znaleziony-w-saragossie/, but all the rest is tracked in music. Curiously, Penderecki sometimes called a few talks with a Polish director, making a film, while he was working on an autonome piece, later tracked into the film, a collaboration. And I think these remarks have led to ongoing false information regarding ‘the few’ original scores. However, there a maybe three short films, without a reliable source, or a means to watch them, that could have original scores, but I doubt it.
So yes, Kilar and Preisner.
Concerning Kilar, there are recurring atypical things; minimal, expressive themes, stark conceptual ideas for a lot of smaller films, great waltzes to things of great size and scope. This results in walls of sound/conceptual ideas in König der Letzten Tage, to introvert, sparse, stark and conceptual only music to Góry o zmierzchu.
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/konig-der-letzten-tage/
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/gory-o-zmierzchu/(Spam approved, courtesy of Thor)
Yes, he did score https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/rekopis-znaleziony-w-saragossie/,
Thanks for that review, Joep! I know of the film (never seen it) and might even have read your review once, but it was good to re-acquaint myself. So that is his only feature film score, then? Sounds fascinating, especially in-context.
Gorgeous 1998 score by Preisner, recently released for the first time on Caldera. That aching, moody sax, man. The haunting flutes. It’s quintessential Preisner. And at times slightly reminiscent of Eleni Karaindrou (especially her masterpiece THE BEEKEEPER, with Jan Garbarek’s sax solos).
Mentioned this earlier, and playing it again now, as I’ve reached Lorenc in my collection walkthrough. Sumptious orchestral score with local gypsye colours, almost Goran Bregovic-style.
Two new reviews….
Witold Lutosławski – Suita Warszawska
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/suita-warszawska/Wojciech Kilar – Lokis. Rekopis profesora Wittembacha
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/lokis-r-kopis-profesora-wittembacha/On a sidenote, Zygmunt Konieczny is slowly becoming one of my most cherished Polish composers of all times…..
Nice, J., I was waiting for some more info on Lutoslawski scores, as the subject was broached on the previous page.
Ooooh, Caldera has another Preisner release forthcoming, for Søren Kragh-Jacobsen’s ØEN I FUGLEGADEN (1997). Kragh-Jacobsen’s DRENGENE FRA ST. PETRI is a childhood favourite of mine, and the combination of the director and composer sounds tantalizing. Count me in!
I don’t think I’ve ever been let down by a Polish composer, favourites being Kilar, Kaczmarek, Preisner and Komeda. The latter had a tragic and premature end, as I expect most people here know, which draws me to him even more, and I also love the jazz albums Astigmatic and Crazy Girl.
I get the feeling that most of the better known Polish composers may have a more traditional conservatoire upbringing than those brought up further west, but I have no particular evidence to back this up.
I’ve reached Kilar now, in my collection walkthrough. I only have those five albums mentioned earlier in the thread, but now’s perhaps time to reacquaint myself with some of the other Kilar suggestions here, or things I haven’t heard before.
Annoyingly, I can no longer see DRACULA or THE NINTH GATE in my CD collection. Must have sacrificed them for something I wanted more at some point, but now I obviously regret it a lot. Never again!
I realize that if we do individual composer threads on any of these at any point, I would have to copy/paste everything I wrote here (that’s the drawback of doing threads on nations). But anyway, a few more thoughts on Kilar:
In addition to re-listening to my five (DRACULA, KÖNIG DER LETZEN TAGE, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY and THE NINTH GATE), I discovered that I actually had LE ROI ET L’OISEAU – which Nick mentioned earlier – on my harddrive; I just hadn’t imported it to iTunes for some reason. I think I can understand why I opted not to at some point – the waltzes and polkas and marches and stuff are a bit grating. But the rest of the material is really lovely; it’s staying in my iTunes.
Additionally, I’ve discovered a few more titles: The recent double-header of POZNE POPULUDNIE (1965) and WILCZE ECHA (1968) on GAD Records- the first a lovely jazz score for what appears to be a 4-way domestic drama, and the latter an amusing western score – Polish Americana, with some suspense tracks that are rather harsh, but add varitety.
I finally gave PAN TADEUSZ (1999) a proper chance, and it’s really good. Same with the 14-minute IL SOLE NERO from 2007, in the last part of his career.
According to Discogs, there are 63 Kilar albums out there (across both film and classical), so I have long way to go. Plus, he’s done, what, 150 film scores, so a lot remains unreleased. But something to do at a later point in time.
Plus, he’s done, what, 150 film scores, so a lot remains unreleased. But something to do at a later point in time.
Maybe the compilations contain some tracks of otherwise unreleased scores, too? I think the one I mentioned does but haven’t check actively.
I actually had LE ROI ET L’OISEAU – which Nick mentioned earlier – on my harddrive
You can loose track at some time 😉
Maybe the compilations contain some tracks of otherwise unreleased scores, too? I think the one I mentioned does but haven’t check actively.
Yes, looks like a nice compilation for the Kilar “newbie”. Obviously, several I already have, but some good selections of lesser known too. In this day and age, one can download just the rare bits from iTunes, I suppose, not the whole album.
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