Wojciech Kilar - Polish film composer
The name of Wojciech Kilar has only come to light relatively recently in English language film circles, but he has been composing music for Polish and other films since the 1950s. He was able to put his Polish/Ukranian background to good effect on one of his earliest English language films - "Bram Stokers Dracula" has some dark and powerful music with an Eastern European flavour suggesting the Romanian origins of the legendary vampire, but it also shows the other side of vampirism, the mysteriously compelling hypnotic quality and in this movie there is also a love theme. One of the features of this soundtrack is that there are times when two of these themes are playing simultaneously yet independently, while the lyrics chant the Latin equivalent of the refrain "Blood is Life". This truly dark soundtrack is available from Amazon.com, and closes with "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox.
Among Kilar's concert pieces is one called "Requiem Father Kolbe" which had its origins in the music he created for a film about Father Kolbe who allowed his own life to be taken in preference to that of another prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Films by Wojciech Kilar:
- The Pianist - an intense camp film about a Jewish pianist who manages to evade capture during WWII, the soundtrack also features the piano music of Polish-born Frederic Chopin as played by the lead character
- The Ninth Gate
- City of Angels - one cue of this
- The Truman Show - one of his pieces was used in this
- Bram Stoker's Dracula - dark and powerful, with an Eastern European flavour suggesting the Romanian origins of the legendary vampire
