Zbigniew Preisner studied history and philosophy in Kraków; never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself about music by listening and transcribing parts from records. His compositional style represents a distinctively spare form of tonal neo-romanticism.
Preisner is best known for the music composed for the films directed by fellow Pole Krzysztof Kieślowski. His "Song for the Unification of Europe", based on the Greek text of 1 Corinthians 13, is attributed to a character in Kieślowski's Three Colors: Blue and plays a dominant role in the story. His music for Three Colors: Red includes a setting of Polish and French versions of a poem by Wisława Szymborska, a Polish Nobel Prize-winning poet.
After working with Kieślowski on Three Colors: Blue, Preisner was hired by the producer Francis Ford Coppola to write the score for The Secret Garden, directed by Polish director Agnieszka Holland. Although Preisner is most closely associated with Kieślowski, he has collaborated with several other directors, winning a César in 1996 for his work on Jean Becker's Élisa. He has won a number of other awards, including another César in 1994 for Three Colors: Red and the Silver Bear at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival 1997 for The Island on Bird Street.
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 Kieślowski, but it became a memorial to Kieślowski after the director's death. 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 the United Kingdom and the PBS television network in the United States. He has also worked with director Thomas Vinterberg on the 2003 film It's All about Love and provided orchestration for David Gilmour's 2006 album On an Island. Silence, Night, and Dreams is Zbigniew Preisner’s new recording project, a large-scale work for orchestra, choir, and soloists, based on texts from the Book of Job. The first recording was released in 2007 with the lead singer of Madredeus, Teresa Salgueiro, and boy soprano Thomas Cully from Libera.
Van den Budenmayer is a fictitious eighteenth-century Dutch composer created by Preisner and director Krzysztof Kieślowski for attributions in screenplays. Preisner said Van den Budenmayer is a pseudonym he and Kieślowski invented "because we both loved the Netherlands". Music by the Dutch composer plays a role in three Kieślowski films: The Decalogue, Three Colours: Blue, and Three Colours: Red . In the second of these, a theme from his musiques funèbres is quoted in "The Song for the Unification of Europe". Its E minor soprano solo is prefigured in the earlier film The Double Life of Veronique, where circumstances in the story prevent the solo from finishing.
At the Beginning
Zbigniew Preisner Lyrics
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Never dreaming, what we'd have to go through
Now here we are, I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you
No one told me I was going to find you
Unexpected, what you did to my heart
When I lost hope, you were there to remind me
And life is a road that I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
We were strangers, on a crazy adventure
Never dreaming, how our dreams would come true
Now here we stand, unafraid of the future
At the beginning with you
And life is a road that I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
Knew there was somebody, somewhere
A new love in the dark
Now I know my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
Nothing's gonna tear us apart
And life is a road that I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
In the end I want to be standing
At the beginning with you...
The song 'At the Beginning' by Zbigniew Preisner is a romantic track that describes the journey of two strangers who find each other unexpectedly and start a new life together. The song begins with the reminiscence of the past when the two were strangers and had no idea what life had in store for them. As the song progresses, it talks about how the two found each other, fell in love and embarked on a journey together.
The song speaks to those who have found love unexpectedly and have a strong desire to keep going in life with their loved one. The lyrics carry a positive and hopeful message throughout as the song talks about how love is like a river that keeps flowing, and life is a journey that should be continued forever.
The opening verse sets the tone for the rest of the song as it talks about the two strangers who did not know each other before. The lyrics 'We were strangers, starting out on a journey, Never dreaming, what we'd have to go through' sets the scene for what's to come. The chorus is an uplifting message about how life is a journey that should be kept going, and love is a river that should flow forever. The final verse reinforces the message of never giving up on love, and the hope that the dream of living with one's loved one will come true.
In conclusion, 'At the Beginning' is an optimistic song about love, life, and the hope that comes with the beginning of a new journey. The lyrics, combined with the soft and heartwarming melody, make this song enjoyable for anyone who has experienced the joy of love.
Line by Line Meaning
We were strangers, starting out on a journey
We didn't know each other and we were embarking on a new adventure
Never dreaming, what we'd have to go through
We had no idea about the challenges that awaited us
Now here we are, I'm suddenly standing
I'm amazed and overwhelmed to be standing here now
At the beginning with you
Starting this new journey in your presence is a blessing
No one told me I was going to find you
I wasn't expecting to meet someone like you
Unexpected, what you did to my heart
You came into my life unexpectedly and changed my heart
When I lost hope, you were there to remind me
During moments of despair, you were the source of my inspiration
This is the start
This is just the beginning of our journey together
And life is a road that I wanna keep going
I want to continue living my life and experiencing new things
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
I want my love for you to keep growing and never fade away
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
Life is full of surprises and we will continue to enjoy this wonderful journey together
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be by your side no matter what happens in life
I'll be there when the storm is through
I'll be with you until the end of any hardships or difficulties
In the end I wanna be standing
At the end of our journey, I want to be standing beside you
Knew there was somebody, somewhere
I had a feeling that somewhere there was someone special for me
A new love in the dark
Even in the darkest times, new love can still be discovered
Now I know my dream will live on
I have found the person I was meant to be with and my dream of true love will continue
I've been waiting so long
I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time
Nothing's gonna tear us apart
No matter what happens, we will always be together
In the end I wanna be standing
At the end of our journey, I want to be standing beside you
At the beginning with you
Starting this new journey in your presence is a blessing
In the end I want to be standing
At the end of our journey, I want to be standing beside you
At the beginning with you...
Starting this new journey in your presence is a blessing
Contributed by Liliana N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.