Zbigniew Preisner

Zbigniew Preisner (born May 20, 1955) is Poland's leading film score composer, best known for his work for the director Krzysztof Kie?lowski.

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Preisner was born in Bielsko-Bia?a, Poland. He studied history and philosophy at Krakow, and never received formal lessons in music, instead teaching himself by copying down parts from records.

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Preisner is best known for his work on Kie?lowski's movies. Some of those movies make reference to a fictitious Dutch composer by the name of Van den Budenmayer, and Preisner writes the music which in the plot of the movie is said to be by Budenmayer.

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After working with fellow Pole, Agnieszka Holland on Kie?lowski's ', Preisner was hired by producer Francis Ford Coppola to write the score for The Secret Garden, directed by Holland.

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

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Joni Mitchell's symphonic-rock CD "Travelogue," released in 2002, includes a version of Preisner's "Song For The Unification of Europe" written for Three Colors: Blue.

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In 1998, Requiem for My Friend, Preisner's first large scale work not written for film, was premiered. It was originally intended as a narrative work to be written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz and directed by Kie?lowski, but after Kie?lowski's death, it instead became a sort of memorial to him.

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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.

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

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May 20: 20 May is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). There are 225 days remaining....

1955: 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar....

Film score: A film score is the background music in a film, generally specially written for the film and often used to heighten emotions provoked by the imagery on the screen or by the dialogue....