This page uses content from the Zbigniew Preisner biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Zbigniew Preisner (born May 20 in Bielsko-Biała, 1955 as Zbigniew Kowalski) is one of Poland's leading film score composers, best known for his work with director Krzysztof Kieślowski.

Life and work

Preisner studied history and philosophy in Kraków. Never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself about music by listening and transcribing parts from records.

Preisner is best known for his work on Kieślowski's movies. Some of these movies make reference to and contain music by a fictitious eighteenth-century Dutch composer, Van den Budenmayer. In actuality, all music credited to Budenmayer within the context of the films is composed by Preisner. Similarly, in Kieślowski's Three Colors: Blue the "Song For The Unification of Europe", written by Preisner, is supposed to be composed by one of the characters in the film.

After working with fellow Pole Agnieszka Holland on Kieślowski's Three Colors: Blue, Preisner was hired by producer Francis Ford Coppola to write the score for The Secret Garden, directed by Holland.

Although Preisner is most closely associated with Kieślowski, he has written for other directors, winning a César in 1996 for his work on Jean Becker's Elisa. He has won a number of other awards, including another César in 1994 for Three Colors: Red, and the Silver Bear from the 1997 Berlin Film Festival 1997 for The Island on Bird Street.

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 and directed by Kieślowski, but after Kieślowski's death, it instead became a sort of memorial to him.

He composed the theme music for the People's Century, a monumental twenty-six part documentary made jointly in 1994 by the BBC television network in Great Britain and the PBS television network in the United States.

He has also worked with director Thomas Vinterberg on the 2003 film It's All About Love.

He provided orchestration for David Gilmour's 2006 album On An Island

Preisner's style is basically Romantic, with Jean Sibelius being an acknowledged influence.

Most notable works

Orchestral works

• Requiem for my friend (1998)
• Life (1998)

Music for solo instruments

• 10 Easy Pieces for Piano (2000)

Film scores

• Sportsman of the Century (2006)
• The Beautiful Country (2004)
• SuperTex (2003)
• Kolysanka (2003)
• Strange Gardens (2003)
• It's All About Love (2003)
• Between Strangers (2002)
• Weiser (2001)
• Aberdeen (2000)
• Dreaming of Joseph Lees (1999)
• The Last September (1999)
• The Island on Bird Street (1997)
• FairyTale: A True Story (1997)
• Foolish Heart (1996)
• Élisa (1995)
• Feast of July (1995)
• Three Colors: Red (1994)
• When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
• Three Colors: White (1994)
• Kouarteto se 4 kiniseis (1994)
• Mouvements du désir (1994)
• On the Edge of the Horizon (1993)
• The Secret Garden (1993)
• Three Colors: Blue (1993)
• Damage (1992)
• Olivier, Olivier (1992)
• Zwolnieni z zycia (1992)
• At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)
• The Double Life of Véronique (1991)
• Eminent Domain (1991)
• Europa Europa (1990)
• Ostatni dzwonek (1989)
• Kocham kino (1988)
• Dekalog (1988-9)
• A Short Film About Love (1988)
• A Short Film About Killing (1988)
• To Kill a Priest (1988)
• Ucieczka (1987)
• The Lullabye (1987)
• Przez dotyk (1986)
• Lubie nietoperze (1986)
• Bez konca (1985)
• Prognoza pogody (1981)

External links

• Home page
• Interview with Preisner with director Edoardo Ponti.
• Zbigniew Preisner musicolog pages

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