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.
El Gusto
Zbigniew Preisner Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Cuando me quede dormido cantando el "gustito" estaba
Ay la la la
Mi mama me despertaba
Yo me hacia el descentendido para ver si me dejaba
Otro ratito contigo
Si piensas que estoy sentido porque tienes nuevo amante
Ay la la la
Antes vivo agradecio que Dios te pague el marchante
Que Dios te pague el marchante, y es el calidad contigo
Ausente de mi estaran pero no de mi memoria
Pero no de mi memoria ausente de mi estaran
Ay la la la
Esto bien comprenderan que para que su memoria
Que para que su memoria ausente te quiero mas
The song "El Gusto" by Zbigniew Preisner tells a story about a person who falls asleep while singing a popular traditional Cuban style song called "Gustito". In his sleep, he dreams about his mother waking him up and he pretends to be asleep to spend more time with her. The lyrics then shift to a more melancholic tone as the singer addresses a lost love who has moved on to someone new. He expresses his gratitude towards her and wishes her well, but admits that her absence will not erase her memory from his heart. Despite this, he declares that her absence makes him love her even more.
The lyrics of "El Gusto" reflect a mixture of emotions including happiness, longing, and sadness. The song also highlights the idea of simplicity and finding joy in the little things in life, such as singing a catchy tune like "Gustito". The lyrics also seem to express the idea that love and memories are eternal and can surpass distance and time.
Line by Line Meaning
Cantando el "gustito" estaba cuando me quede dormido
I was singing 'el gusto' when I fell asleep
Cuando me quede dormido cantando el "gustito" estaba
When I fell asleep, I was singing 'el gusto'
Ay la la la
Expressive exclamation
Mi mama me despertaba
My mother woke me up
Yo me hacia el descentendido para ver si me dejaba
I pretended to still be asleep to see if she would let me stay a little longer
Otro ratito contigo
Another little while with you
Si piensas que estoy sentido porque tienes nuevo amante
If you think I'm hurt because you have a new lover
Porque tienes nuevo amante si piensas que estoy sentido
If you think I'm hurt because you have a new lover
Antes vivo agradecio que Dios te pague el marchante
I am grateful that God has rewarded you with a good partner
Que Dios te pague el marchante, y es el calidad contigo
May God bless you and your partner
Ausente de mi estaran pero no de mi memoria
They may be absent from me, but not from my memory
Pero no de mi memoria ausente de mi estaran
But they will be absent from me, not from my memory
Esto bien comprenderan que para que su memoria
You will understand that it is necessary for their memory
Que para que su memoria ausente te quiero mas
That their absence makes me love you more
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Elpidio Ramirez Burgos
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind