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.
Lux aeterna
Zbigniew Preisner Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
wśród Świętych Twoich na wieki, bo jesteś pełen dobroci.
Wieczny odpoczynek racz mu dać Panie,
a światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci,
wśród Świętych Twoich na wieki
bo jesteś pełen dobroci.
The lyrics to the song Lux aeterna by Zbigniew Preisner are a prayer or a plea for eternal rest and eternal light for a departed soul. The opening line, “Światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci, Panie” can be translated as “Eternal light, let it shine upon him/her, Lord”. The rest of the lyrics continue in a similar vein, asking for eternal rest and for the departed to be welcomed into the company of the saints in heaven. The final line, “bo jesteś pełen dobroci” means “because you are full of goodness”. This line emphasizes the belief that God is benevolent and merciful, and that the departed will be welcomed into heaven because of His goodness.
The song is commonly associated with funeral or memorial services, and the lyrics reflect the desire of the living to pray for the repose of the soul of the departed. The use of Latin in the song adds a sense of solemnity and reverence, and helps to create a sense of timelessness that transcends any specific cultural or religious context.
Overall, the lyrics to Lux aeterna are a moving tribute to the life of a departed soul, and a plea for eternal rest and peace in the company of God and the saints in heaven.
Line by Line Meaning
Światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci, Panie,
May eternal light shine upon him, Lord,
wśród Świętych Twoich na wieki,
amongst your saints forever,
bo jesteś pełen dobroci.
for you are full of kindness.
Wieczny odpoczynek racz mu dać Panie,
Grant him eternal rest, Lord,
a światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci,
and may eternal light shine upon him,
wśród Świętych Twoich na wieki
amongst your saints forever
Contributed by William L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.