Wojciech Kilar (1932 - 2013)

It all began in 1958 with the soundtrack for the short documentary Narciarze (Skiers) by Natalia Brzozowska. At the age of 26, Kilar, freshly graduated from the State Higher School of Music in Katowice, was planning to study under Nadia Boulanger in Paris and to pursue a career as a composer of European avant-garde music, eagerly absorbing the pointillist and serial currents from the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt. Film music was not part of these plans—it was meant to be merely an episode, a side venture, a temporary financial boost. However, things turned out differently. His Darmstadt avant-garde experiences were reflected in only a few works from the 1960s, which the composer himself was reluctant to recall. The proposal from Brzozowska, however, led to a cascade of subsequent commissions, and after half a century in cinema, Kilar's name rose to the peak of world film music.

Wojciech Kilar’s filmography includes 176 soundtracks (121 of which are full-length feature films) and over 20 prestigious awards, including the ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films in Los Angeles, Best Score Composer in San Francisco for his music in Bram Stoker's Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola, the César Award for the soundtrack to The Pianist by Roman Polanski, and the Golden Fryderyk for his lifetime achievement in film music. The list of directors Kilar collaborated with from 1958 until his death in 2013 includes over 40 names. Among them are filmmakers with whom Kilar had brief associations, such as Jan Weychert (Obok prawdy, 1964), Zbigniew Chmielewski (Tabliczka marzenia, 1968), and Witold Lesiewicz (Bolesław Śmiały, 1971). However, there are also directors with whom he repeatedly worked, such as Kazimierz Kutz, Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Wajda, Roman Polański, Stanisław Różewicz, Sylwester Chęciński, Paweł Komorowski, and Janusz Majewski. Additionally, Kilar worked with directors who only appeared once or twice but played a key role in his film career, including Francis Ford Coppola (Bram Stoker's Dracula, 1992), Jane Campion (The Portrait of a Lady, 1996), Tadeusz Konwicki (Salto, 1965), Jerzy Hoffman (Trzy kroki po ziemi, 1965; Trędowata, 1976), Wojciech Has (Lalka, 1968), Marek Piwowski (Rejs, 1970), and Krzysztof Kieślowski (Przypadek, 1981).

Kilar’s film activity developed alongside his autonomous (mainly symphonic) compositions, and it can be divided into four distinct phases. During the first decade of his film career (1958-1968), he participated exclusively in Polish productions, with 47 music scores created during this period. He focused primarily on full-length feature films, many of which were part of the Polish Film School. In this phase, he not only sought to find his place in this new field of art but also explored aesthetics and styles that would serve both cinema and his artistic vision. His soundtracks from this period reflect a wide range of musical approaches, including the emerging sonorism (e.g., Powrót na ziemię by Stanisław Jędryka, 1966), atonality (Milczenie by Kazimierz Kutz, 1963), punctualism (Nikt nie woła by Kazimierz Kutz, 1960), jazz (his first full-length feature film score for Lunatycy by Bohdan Poręba, 1959), blues (Tarpany by Kazimierz Kutz, 1961), and rock (Trzy kroki po ziemi by Edward Skórzewski and Jerzy Hoffman, 1965). It is noteworthy that during this early stage, Kilar hardly touched upon the late Romantic symphonic idiom, except for brief orchestral fragments in a few scores (such as in Kryptonim „Nektar” by Leon Jeannot, 1963).

In the second period of his work (1969-1976), his style drifted towards American minimalism (Struktura kryształu by Krzysztof Zanussi, 1969), but he also began incorporating elements of the Classical Hollywood Film Score, as seen in his scores for the TV series Przygody Pana Michała (1969), Hubal by Bohdan Poręba, and Wielka miłość Balzaca by Wojciech Solarz (1973). Starting with his score for Zazdrość i medycyna by Janusz Majewski in 1973 (a year before the premiere of Krzesany, his orchestral masterpiece inspired by the Tatra Mountains and Highlander music), large symphonic film scores with a romantic and dance-like character dominated his work. Among the 41 soundtracks created in this period, masterpieces such as the waltz from The Promised Land by Andrzej Wajda (1974) and the Waltz Brillant from Trędowata by Jerzy Hoffman (1976) are included.

In the third phase of his career (1977-1990), Kilar was the most active in the film industry, not in terms of the number of productions (composing for 38 films), but in the variety of his work. This period marked the beginning of his independent ventures in international cinema, as well as an expansion into documentaries and animation. It was also a time when he firmly established himself as a film music giant in Europe. His film music, with a late-Romantic idiom, developed a distinctive, deeply Slavic character. Kilar particularly favored incorporating dance forms and rhythms into his soundtracks, including not only international standards such as the waltz and tango but also Polish dances like the polonaise and regional folk dances (elements of the krakowiak, oberek, etc.). Another crucial development was his use of quotations from Polish hymns and songs, a practice he had begun in the second period of his career (Sól ziemi czarnej by Kazimierz Kutz, 1969). He wove these musical references into the narrative, as seen in Z dalekiego kraju. Papież Jan Paweł II by Krzysztof Zanussi (1981, with a monumental quotation of the first incipit of Bogurodzica), Kronika wypadków miłosnych by Andrzej Wajda (1985, with traces of Mazurek Dąbrowskiego), and Życie za życie. Maksymilian Kolbe by Krzysztof Zanussi (1991, with fragments of a Polish Marian hymn from the early nineteenth century). Through these efforts, Wojciech Kilar created the Polish Classical Film Score, a national variant of the global Classical Hollywood Film Score movement. These compositions extended beyond Poland’s borders, first through Krzysztof Zanussi’s co-productions with Germany and France, and later through his collaboration with creators from the broader European cinema scene.

The fourth period of Wojciech Kilar's film music career (1992-2013) almost didn't happen, as at the beginning of the 1990s, following his exhaustive work on Korczak (1990) by Andrzej Wajda, Kilar decided to step away from cinema. He was then working on his opus vitae, Missa Pro Pace, which was completed in the new millennium. However, a famous late-night phone call, offering him the opportunity to compose the score for Francis Ford Coppola’s period horror Bram Stoker's Dracula (with a star-studded cast including Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Tom Waits, and Monica Bellucci), changed his decision and launched the final stage of his film career. This phase yielded globally recognized soundtracks, including Król ostatnich dni (1993) by Tom Toelle, Portret damy (1996) by Jane Campion, Dziewiąte wrota (1999), Pianista (2002) by Roman Polański, Pan Tadeusz (1999), and Zemsta (2002) by Andrzej Wajda. In all these productions, Kilar gave music a non-traditional role as a narrator commenting on the action from behind the scenes, uncovering meanings invisible in the image, describing the characters’ personalities, and guiding the audience's attention in specific directions. These works now live beyond the screen, performed on concert stages worldwide.

The final soundtrack, however, never came to be. Battling cancer, Kilar did not manage to finish it; only an empty sheet of his favorite music paper from Frankfurt was found on his piano stand, with the title Obce ciało (Foreign Body) handwritten by the composer, accompanied by the note "Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi." Two years after his death, the mayors of Kraków and Katowice established the Wojciech Kilar Award, given annually during the Film Music Festival in Kraków to original film music composers who remain faithful to the traditional art of composition and who particularly emphasize its importance and ethos. Prestigious recipients of the award include major film composers such as Elliot Goldenthal, Alexandre Desplat, Howard Shore, Michael Nyman, and Craig Armstrong.

Biography

Wojciech Kilar, the only son of renowned gynecologist Jan Franciszek Kilar and aspiring actress Neonilla Kilar, was born on July 17, 1932, in an apartment on Sapieha Street (now Bandery Street) in Lviv. He grew up in an artistic and multicultural environment, as Lviv at the time was a hub not only for science, literature, theater, and music but also for the burgeoning film industry (the city boasted 24 cinema halls in the interwar period, and film-related press was beginning to emerge). At the age of five, Wojtek began taking music lessons at the Reiss School for Girls, but he struggled with reading musical notation and lacked the patience for piano exercises. This period also marked the beginning of his fascination with cinema. His first film, watched in the modern Roxy cinema, was Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. From that moment on, cinema became associated with luxury, vibrant colors, sounds, and – above all – America.

At the age of seven, on the brink of World War II, Kilar started attending St. Mary Magdalene School in Lviv. However, his parents soon arranged for him to be taught at home. During the war, Kilar was primarily raised by the streets – he spent time wandering the city, observing the sites of political prisoners' executions at the "Brygidki" and the prison on Łącki Street, which the Germans, in a macabre propaganda stunt, allowed visitors to tour. He later witnessed the liquidation of the Lviv ghetto. These harrowing images haunted him in his dreams for years, and the smell of burning remains would stay with him for the rest of his life, a reminder of the bodies of the dead.

Kilar left Lviv at the end of the war, when he was twelve. His father, Jan Franciszek, settled in Silesia, while his mother, Neonilla, moved with Wojtek first to Krosno and then, after the German surrender, to Rzeszów. The Kilar couple never lived together again; in his adult life in Katowice, Wojciech never returned to his hometown. In Rzeszów, the young Wojtek flourished – he began his education at the Szymon Konarski High School and studied piano at the local music school under Kazimierz Mirski, where he befriended future Chopin Competition winner Adam Harasiewicz. In the summer of 1947, he achieved his first stage success, winning second prize at the Young Talents Competition in Rzeszów. Around the same time, at the suggestion of his mother's partner, songwriter and director of the Rzeszów Theatre, Antoni Graziadio, he began composing, producing a Mazurek for piano and two children's miniatures: Bajka (Fairy Tale) and Zabawa dzieci (Children's Play). A few months later, he was sent alone to Kraków for lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Professor Artur Malawski, as well as piano instruction under Maria Riegerowa. He stayed with the Rieger family, near the Main Market Square, and was enrolled in the prestigious Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School. However, his academic performance was poor due to frequent truancy and long hours spent in the "Redolfi" café, where, despite his young age, he enjoyed cigarettes and glasses of liqueur. After receiving a report card with six failing grades, Neonilla decided to transfer her son to the Music High School in Katowice.

In 1948, Wojciech Kilar began piano studies with Władysława Markiewiczówna and two years later, in 1950, enrolled in composition and piano studies at the Karol Szymanowski State Higher School of Music in Katowice, under the guidance of Professor Bolesław Woytowicz, who also welcomed him into his home. This period marked an intense and complicated time in the young artist's life—just months after starting his studies, his father, Jan Franciszek, passed away, and his mother, Neonilla, remarried Antoni Graziadio and moved with him to Katowice. After two years of studying at the State School of Music, Kilar abandoned the piano, discouraged by the need to memorize increasingly difficult pieces.

In 1954, Kilar became involved with the stage, starting a collaboration with the Bielsko-Biała Puppet Theater “Banialuka.” A year later, he won second prize in the Symphony Works Competition at the 5th Youth Festival in Warsaw for his Mała uwertura (Little Overture), which was soon published by PWM. That same year, he graduated with distinction from the composition department in Katowice, and two years later, he attended the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, where he immersed himself in the avant-garde compositions of Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

In 1958, Kilar began his work in film music, composing for Natalia Brzozowska's nine-minute documentary Narciarze (Skiers) and soon for two feature films: Bohdan Poręba's Lunatycy (Sleepwalkers) and Kazimierz Kutz's Nikt nie woła (No One Calls). The late 1950s and early 1960s saw Kilar living in Paris, attending music courses with Nadia Boulanger, where he befriended composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Upon his return in the autumn of 1962, he achieved his first success at the International Contemporary Music Festival “Warsaw Autumn,” presenting his sonorous orchestral composition Riff 62. While planning more avant-garde works, he also became increasingly involved in cinema. In 1966, he married pianist Barbara Pomianowska after a tumultuous 12-year engagement. At her encouragement, in 1968, Kilar completely abandoned alcohol and a reckless lifestyle, remaining an abstainer for the rest of his life.

By the end of the 1960s, the promising avant-garde composer began collaborating with the Song and Dance Ensemble “Śląsk” and forged a professional relationship with director Krzysztof Zanussi, thus intertwining his career more closely with cinema. In the 1970s, he dramatically shifted his musical style, writing the Poliptyk tatrzański (Tatra Polyptych), a series of poems (Krzesany, Kościelec 1909, Siwa mgła, Orawa) inspired by the Tatra Mountains and regional folk music. In July 1974, just after completing the first piece in this series, Kilar made his first hike in the mountains, a passion that he pursued with zeal for the next decade, until health issues related to his heart emerged. In 1978, he was granted a house and moved with his wife to Katowice-Brynów, to a villa on Kościuszki Street (which the city later purchased after his death).

The period of martial law (1981–1983) was particularly hard for Kilar; through his friend, painter Jerzy Duda-Gracz, he found refuge in the Pauline Monastery at Jasna Góra, where he remained until the end of his life (his cell was equipped with a small television for work on his films). Deeply moved by the Rosary prayer recited in the monastery chapel, Kilar composed the cantata Angelus— a sung prayer—which he presented as a manuscript offering to the monastery as a token of gratitude for all the good he had experienced. With the arrival of a free Poland, Kilar decided to retire from cinema and dedicate himself to composing masses.

A late-night phone call from Francis Ford Coppola (whom Kilar considered the creator of a masterpiece in The Godfather) changed his decision—his collaboration on the production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula was released in American cinemas in November 1992, marking the beginning of the final, “global” phase of the composer’s film career. For the film’s soundtrack, Kilar received an ASCAP award. In the following years, Kilar continued his film music work, partnering with his former student friend, Roman Polański, composing scores for three of his films: The Death and the Maiden, The Ninth Gate, and The Pianist. He also collaborated with New Zealand director Jane Campion, composing the music for the period drama The Portrait of a Lady, starring Nicole Kidman.

The turn of the century marked a period of intense work both in cinema and on stage (in 2001, his Missa Pro Pace premiered, performed in the Vatican in the presence of Pope John Paul II). It was also a time of recognition, with Kilar receiving numerous prestigious awards and honors: the Archbishop of Katowice’s Lux ex Silesia prize in 1995, membership in the Polish Academy of Sciences, a prize at the Polish Film Festival in America in 1998, honorary citizenships of Rzeszów (1998) and Katowice (2006), honorary doctorates from Opole University (1998) and the University of Silesia (2012), the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2002), a César for the music of The Pianist, the Ecce Homo Order (2003), the Totus Award from the Polish Episcopal Conference Foundation “Dzieło Naszego Tysiąclecia” (2009), the honorary Lech Kaczyński Award (2011), the Order of the White Eagle, the title of Polish Music’s Corifeus, and the Gold Fryderyk for his lifetime achievement (2012), and the title of Knight of the Legion of Honour “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to universal culture and commitment to Franco- Polish cultural relations” in 2013.

It’s no secret that his intensive work in film allowed Kilar to enjoy a high standard of living, indulging in his love for small luxuries (designer clothes, expensive perfumes, etc.). However, the media rarely mentioned that he selflessly shared the wealth earned from cinema—he financed a heart surgery for one of his friends, paid for the treatment of an unknown girl from the Association for the Blind in Laski, outfitted the ICU at a hospital in Ochojec, supported a hospice in Katowice, and funded bells for the Church of St. Michael in Katowice-Brynów.

The years following the premiere of Dracula were full and happy for Kilar but were overshadowed by two tragic losses: the death of his mother in 1993 and, above all, the passing of his beloved wife, Barbara Kilar, in 2007. In September 2013, Kilar was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died at his home on Kościuszki Street on December 29, 2013; ten days before his death, he received the news that he had been awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater in Katowice. The following year, a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the building at Bandera Street in Lviv, where Wojciech Kilar was born, and a square near the new headquarters of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice was named in his honor.