Wojciech Kilar (Polish pronunciation: [ˈvɔjt͡ɕex kilar] (pronounced phonetically: Voy-cheh Kee-lahr); (17 July 1932 – 29 December 2013) was a Polish classical and film music composer.

Biography

Wojciech Kilar was one of Poland's most esteemed composers. He was born in 1932 in Lwów (since 1945 Lviv, Ukraine). His father was a gynecologist and his mother was a theater actress. Kilar has spent most of his life since 1948 in the city of Katowice in Southern Poland, married (from April 1966 to November 2007) to Barbara Pomianowska, a pianist. Kilar was 22 years old when he met 18-year-old Barbara, his future wife.

Education

Kilar studied at some of Poland's finest music academies, including the State Higher School of Music in Katowice, under the composer and pianist Władysława Markiewiczówna, graduating with top honors in 1955. He continued his post-graduate studies at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków from 1955 to 1958 under composer and pianist Bolesław Woytowicz. In 1957 he participated in the International New Music Summer Course in Darmstadt. Kilar expanded on his musical education in Paris in 1959-60, when a scholarship from the French government allowed him to study composition under Nadia Boulanger.

Music career

Wojciech Kilar belonged (together with Bolesław Szabelski, his student Henryk Górecki and Krzysztof Penderecki) to the Polish Avant-garde music movement of the Sixties. In 1977 Kilar was one of the founding members of the Karol Szymanowski Society, based in the mountain town of Zakopane. Kilar chaired the Katowice chapter of the Association of Polish Composers for many years and from 1979-81 was vice chair of this association's national board. He was also a member of the Repertoire Committee for the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music. In 1991 Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi made a biographical film about the composer titled Wojciech Kilar.

Having received critical success as a classical composer, Kilar scored his first domestic film in 1959, and has since gone on to write music from some of Poland's most acclaimed directors, including Krzysztof Kieślowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Kazimierz Kutz and Andrzej Wajda. He worked on over 100 titles in his home country, including internationally recognised titles such as Bilans Kwartalny (1975), Spirala (1978), Constans (1980), Imperativ (1982), Rok Spokojnego Słońca (1984), and Życie za Życie (1991), plus several others in France and across other parts of Europe. He made his English-language debut with Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Dracula. His other English language features — Roman Polanski's trio Death and the Maiden (1994), The Ninth Gate (1999) and The Pianist (2002), and Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996) — were typified by his trademark grinding basses and cellos, deeply romantic themes and minimalist chord progressions.

In addition to his film work, Kilar continued to write and publish purely classical works, which have included a horn sonata, a piece for a wind quintet, several pieces for chamber orchestra and choir, the acclaimed Baltic Canticles, the epic Exodus (famous as the trailer music from Schindler's List), a Concerto for Piano and Orchestra dedicated to Peter Jablonski, and his major work, the September Symphony (2003).

Having abandoned Avant-garde music technical means almost entirely, he continued to employ a simplified musical language, in which sizable masses of sound serve as a backdrop for highlighted melodies. This occurs in those compositions that reference folk music (especially Polish Highlander Gorals folk melodies) and in patriotic and religious pieces.

Death

Wojciech Kilar, who was suffering from cancer during his final years, died on 29 December 2013 in Katowice at the age of 81.

Awards

Wojciech Kilar has received numerous awards for his artistic activity and achievements, including prizes from the Lili Boulanger Foundation in Boston (1960), the Minister of Culture and Art (1967, 1975), the Association of Polish Composers (1975), the Katowice province (1971, 1976, 1980), and the city of Katowice (1975, 1992). He has also been awarded the First Class Award of Merit of the Polish Republic (1980), the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Prize in New York City (1984), the Solidarity Independent Trade Union Cultural Committee Arts Award (1989), the Wojciech Korfanty Prize (1995), the "Lux ex Silesia" Prize bestowed by the Archbishop and Metropolitan of Katowice (1995), and the Sonderpreis des Kulturpreis Schlesien des Landes Niedersachsen (1996).

Kilar's film scores have also won him many honors. He received the best score award for the music to Ziemia obiecana / The Promised Land (dir. Andrzej Wajda) at the Festival of Polish Films in Gdansk in 1975. This was followed by the Prix Louis Delluc, which Kilar was awarded in 1980 for the music to an animated film titled Le Roi et l'Oiseau / The King and the Mockingbird, (dir. Paul Grimault). One year later he collected an award at the Cork International Film Festival for the music to Papież Jan Pawel II / Pope John Paul II / Da un paese lontano: Papa Giovanni Paulo II (dir. Krzysztof Zanussi).

Perhaps his greatest success came with his score to Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, for which Kilar received the ASCAP Award 1992 from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Producers in Los Angeles and the prize for best score in a horror film in San Francisco in 1992. The Polish State Cinema Committee honored Kilar with a lifetime achievement award in 1991, while in 1976 he was decorated with the Cavaliers' Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In November 2008 Kilar was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

List of major awards

• The French Lili Boulanger Prize for composition (1960)
• The Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts Award (1967 and 1976)
• The Polish Composers Union Award (1975)
• The French Prix Louis Delluc (1980)
• The Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award (1984, USA)
• The Polish Cultural Foundation Award (2000)
• The 1992 ASCAP Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Producers in Los Angeles for his score for the Coppola horror film Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• The prize for best score in a horror film, Bram Stoker's Dracula (San Francisco, 1992)
• 2002 BAFTA Awards - Nominee
• Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music - The Pianist

Works

The vast majority of Wojciech Kilar's work remains undiscovered by the music public at large, despite having written music for well over 100 films, including: Bram Stoker's Dracula, Death and the Maiden, The Portrait of a Lady, The Ninth Gate, Pan Tadeusz, The Pianist, Zemsta, and We Own the Night.

Presently Kilar composes symphonic music, chamber works and works for solo instruments. January 2001 saw the world premiere of his Missa pro pace (composed for a full symphony orchestra, mixed choir and a quartet of soloists) at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. The work was written to commemorate the Warsaw Philharmonic's centennial. In December 2001, it was performed again in the Paul VI Audience Hall in the presence of Pope John Paul II. His 1984 composition Angelus was used in the motion picture City of Angels; Orawa, from 1988, found its use in the Santa Clara Vanguard's 2003 production, "Pathways", as well as Grants Pass High School's 2010 production, "Traffic", which named them the 2010 NWAPA champion.

For most of his life, Kilar's output has been dominated by music for film with a small but steady stream of concert works. Post 2000, he has turned to "music of a singular authorship". Since his 2003 September Symphony, (Symphony No.3), a four-movement full scale symphony written for the composer's friend Antoni Wit, Kilar has returned to absolute music. September Symphony was the first symphony by the composer since 1955's Symphony for Strings (along with another student symphony) and Kilar considered it his first mature symphony (composed at age 71).

Since 2003, Kilar has been steadily producing large scale concert works. His Lament (2003) for unaccompanied mixed choir, his Symphony No.4 Sinfonia de Motu (Symphony of Motion) from 2005 written for large orchestra, choir and soloists, his Magnificat Mass from 2006, Symphony No.5 Advent Symphony from 2007 and another large mass, Te Deum premiered in November 2008. Kilar was quoted as saying that he believed he had discovered the philosopher's stone, and that "there was nothing more beautiful than the solitary sound or concord that lasted eternally, that this was the deepest wisdom, nothing like our tricks with sonata allegros, fugues, and harmonics." Kilar's works have been performed by several major international orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.

Selected film music

• Nikt nie woła (Nobody's calling) (1960)
• Tarpany (Wild Horses) (1962)
• Głos z tamtego świata (Voice from beyond) (1962)
• Milczenie (Silence) (1963)
• Trzy kroki po ziemi (Three steps on Earth) (1965)
• Salto (Somersault) (1965)
• Piekło i niebo (Hell and heaven) (1966)
• Bicz boży (God's whip) (1967)
• The Doll (1968 film) (Lalka) (1968)
• Sol Ziemi Czarnej (1969)
• Rejs (Cruise) (1970)
• Perla w Koronie (1971)
• Bolesław Śmiały (King Boleslaus the Bold) (1972)
• Opętanie (Obsession) (1973)
• Zazdrość i Medycyna (1973)
• Bilans Kwartalny (A Woman's Decision) (1974)
• Ziemia obiecana (Land of Promise) (1974)
• Smuga cienia (The shadow line) (1976)
• Trędowata (1976)
• Ptaki ptakom (Bords to birds) (1977)
• Barwy ochronne (Camouflage) (1977)
• Spirala (Spiral) (1978)
• Rodzina Połanieckich (TV series) (1978)
• Le Roi et l'Oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird) (1980)
• From a Far Country (1981)
• Przypadek (Blind chance) (1982)
• Paradigma (1985)
• Kronika wypadków miłosnych (Chronicle of Amorous Events) (1986)
• Salsa (1988)
• Gdzieśkolwiek jest, jesliś jest (Wherever you are, if you are) (1988)
• Stan posiadania (Inventory) (1989)
• Napoléon et l'Europe (TV mini-series) (1991)
• Życie za życie (about Maximilian Kolbe) (1991)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
• Dotknięcie ręki (A touch of the hand) (1992)
• Death and the Maiden (1994)
• Cwał (In Full Gallop) (1995)
• The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
• Deceptive Charm (1996)
• Brat naszego Boga (Our God's brother) (1997)
• The Truman Show (1998) (parts from Requiem Father Kolbe)
• The Ninth Gate (1999)
• Pan Tadeusz (1999)
• Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease (2000)
• Le Pianiste (2002)
• Zemsta (Revenge) (2002)
• We Own the Night (2007)
• Il Sole Nero (2007)

Orchestral

• Small Overture (1955), for the Youth Festival, 1955
• Symphony for Strings (Symphony No. 1, 1955)
• Ode Béla Bartók in memoriam, for violin, brass, and percussion (1956)
• Riff 62 (1962)
• Generique (1963)
• Springfield Sonnet (1965)
• Krzesany, for orchestra (1974)
• Kościelec 1909, for orchestra (1976)
• Orawa, for string orchestra (1988)
• Choralvorspiel (Choral Prelude), for string orchestra, (1988)
• Requiem Father Kolbe, for symphony orchestra (1994)
• Symphony No. 3 "September Symphony" for orchestra (2003)
• Uwertura uroczysta [Solemn Overture] for orchestra (2010)

Orchestral, with instrumental and vocal soloists or accompaniment

• Symphony Concertante, for piano and orchestra (Symphony No. 2, 1956)
• Prelude and Christmas Carol, for four oboes and string orchestra (1972)
• Bogurodzica, for mixed choir and orchestra (1975)
• Siwa mgła, for baritone and orchestra (1979)
• Exodus, for mixed choir and orchestra (1981)
• Victoria, for mixed choir and orchestra (1983)
• Angelus, for symphony orchestra, soprano, and mixed choir (1984)
• Piano Concerto No.1 (1996)
• Missa Pro Pace, for orchestra, chorus, and soloists (2000)
• Symphony No. 4 "Sinfonia de Motu" (Symphony of Motion), for orchestra, chorus, and soloists (2005)
• Magnificat, for orchestra, chorus, and soloists (2007)
• Symphony No. 5 "Advent Symphony", for orchestra, chorus, and soloists (2007)
• Te Deum, for orchestra, chorus, and soloists (2008)
• Veni Creator, for mixed chorus and strings (2008)
• Piano Concerto No.2 (2011)

Choral

• Lament, for mixed unaccompanied choir (2003)
• Paschalis Hymn for chorus (2008)

Chamber

• Flute Sonatina (1951)
• Woodwind Quintet (1952)
• Horn Sonata (1954)
• Training 68, for clarinet, trombone, and piano (1968)