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Classiscsonline Home » Composers » K » Kilar, Wojciech

Wojciech Kilar (b1932)

The Polish composer Wojciech Kilar has made a particularly distinguished contribution to film music. He attended the summer courses at Darmstadt and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris after his earlier musical training in his own country. He has won a number of awards for his work.

Choral and Orchestral Music

Influenced at first by Szymanowski, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Kilar went on to make use of serial techniques, often in conjunction with more traditional forms and techniques, developing over the years his own neo-tonal musical language. He is influenced by the music of Poland and by his religious beliefs, the former heard, for example, in Krzesany, which draws inspiration from the Polish mountains, and the latter in works such as Angelus and Bogurodzica (‘Mother of God’).

Film Music

Kilar has written the music for over 150 films and he enjoyed a national reputation long before commissions came from abroad. These last have included Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden and The Ninth Gate, and Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady.