Wojciech Kilar

The Ninth Gate, Roman Polanski's supernatural thriller about a book that can summon the devil, features an appropriately tense and eerie score by Wojciech Kilar, who also composed the award-winning music for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Sumi Jo's ethereal, operatic vocals grace "The Theme From The Ninth Gate," and the City of Prague Philharmonic and Chorus lend a brooding, Old World feel to pieces like "Corso" and "Bernie Is Dead." Piano and strings contribute to the ghostly, romantic aura of "Liana," while "Plane to Spain," "Chateau Saint Martin," and "The Motorbike" add to the score's continental atmosphere. Suspenseful in its own right, Kilar's music for The Ninth Gate reaffirms his skill as a film composer.

Francis Ford Coppola took an inspired gamble in hiring the Polish composer to realise his Gothic stage production made for the cinema screen. Nothing about Kilar conforms to Hollywood. His classical works and earlier European films for the likes of Polanski and Zanussi, show a style based upon a repetitive form that insinuates itself upon the ear until it becomes unforgettable. "Vampire Hunters" is a superb example, being a cyclic string and brass motif that develops an exciting dynamic by revolving between keys. A pounding drum keeps time and rhythm for a flawlessly edited scene of destroying the vampire's lair. There is also the exquisite theme for Mina and Dracula, which in "Love Remembered" is presented on the composer's favoured instrument, flute. Again, it's through instrumental interchange across repetitions of the theme that the piece achieves its effect. A little sound design ("The Ring Of Fire") offers pause before the tender choral dénouement. Despite the tail-end pop song, this was a blockbuster debut without precedent.

Polish composer Wojciech Kilar is not as well known as several of his contemporaries and compatriots such as Penderecki and Górecki, but his compositional path has taken a similar trajectory. He was trained as a modernist, with a stint at Darmstadt, but unlike them he always had a strong interest in folk traditions. Like them, he experienced an aesthetic conversion in the 1970s and abandoned the modernism of his youth. His music ……

Stephen Eddins @ AllMusic

Polish composer Wojciech Kilar is not as well known as several of his contemporaries and compatriots such as Penderecki and Górecki, but his compositional path has taken a similar trajectory. He was trained as a modernist, with a stint at Darmstadt, but unlike them he always had a strong interest in folk traditions. Like them, he experienced an aesthetic conversion in the 1970s and abandoned the modernism of his youth. His music ……

Stephen Eddins @ AllMusic

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. Influenced at first by Szymanowski, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Kilar went on to make use of serial techniques, often in conjunction with more traditional forms ……..

Polish-born composer Wojciech Kilar had worked on over 100 Polish films before scoring his first American film, Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula . This disc contains highlights from that film's moving, haunting score, plus music from Kilar's soundtracks for Pearl in the Crown, Death and the Maiden, The Beads of One Rosary and more. Simply gorgeous.

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. 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, ….

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. 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, ………..