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.
Song for the Unification of Europe
Zbigniew Preisner Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
αγάπην δε μη έχω, γέγονα χαλκός ηχών ή κύμβαλον αλαλάζον.
Και εάν έχω προφητείαν και ειδώ τα μυστήρια πάντα
ώστε όρη μεθιστάνειν, αγάπην δε μη έχω
ουδέν είμι.
Η αγάπη μακροθυμεί, χρηστεύεται,
Πάντα στέγει, πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ελπίζει, πάντα υπομένει,
η αγάπη ουδέποτε εκπίπτει
είτε δε προφητείαι καταργηθήσονται
είτε γλώσσαι παύσονται
είτε γνώσις καταργηθήσεται
Νυνί δε μένει, πίστις, ελπίς, αγάπη,
τα τρία ταύτα,
μείζων δε τούτων η αγάπη.
The lyrics of Zbigniew Preisner's song "Song for the unification of Europe" are taken from a passage in the New Testament of the Bible, specifically from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. The passage speaks about the importance of love, as it is the only thing that endures beyond time and can bring unity amongst people. It begins by saying that even if a person speaks in the tongues of men and of angels, but does not have love, they are like a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. This implies that without love, words are meaningless and have no substance.
The song then continues with the idea that even if a person has great knowledge and understanding of the mysteries of the world, without love, they have nothing. Love is patient, it is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails, no matter what happens, and it is the greatest of all. The final line emphasizes that faith, hope, and love remain, but love is the greatest.
Overall, the lyrics of the song are a call for unity, particularly in the context of Europe, where the continent has been divided by various factors throughout history. The song encourages people to focus on love as the only thing that can bring about true unity and harmony.
Line by Line Meaning
Εάν ταις γλώσσαις των ανθρώπων λαλώ και των αγγέλων
If I speak the languages of humans and of angels
αγάπην δε μη έχω, γέγονα χαλκός ηχών ή κύμβαλον αλαλάζον.
but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Και εάν έχω προφητείαν και ειδώ τα μυστήρια πάντα
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries
ώστε όρη μεθιστάνειν, αγάπην δε μη έχω
and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love,
ουδέν είμι.
I am nothing.
Η αγάπη μακροθυμεί, χρηστεύεται,
Love is patient, love is kind,
η αγάπη ου ζηλοί, η αγάπη ου περπερεύεται, ου φυσιούται.
it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Πάντα στέγει, πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ελπίζει, πάντα υπομένει,
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
η αγάπη ουδέποτε εκπίπτει
Love never fails.
είτε δε προφητείαι καταργηθήσονται
But where there are prophecies, they will cease;
είτε γλώσσαι παύσονται
where there are tongues, they will be stilled;
είτε γνώσις καταργηθήσεται
where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Νυνί δε μένει, πίστις, ελπίς, αγάπη,
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love,
τα τρία ταύτα, μείζων δε τούτων η αγάπη.
but the greatest of these is love.
Contributed by Oliver W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Seb Vermeulen
If with the tongues of men I speak,
and of angels,
Love I do not have,
I have become a gong resounding or cymbal clanging.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and know mysteries all,
faith mountains move,
Love I do not have, nothing I am.
Love is generous, virtuous,
Love does not envy, boast, not proud is.
All she protects, all she trusts, all she hopes, all she perseveres.
Love never she fails. Be it prophecies, they will cease,
Be it tongues, they will be stilled, be it knowledge it will cease.
So remain, Faith, Hope and Love, these three. But the greatest of these is Love.
Pieros Kezou
one of the best compositions i've heard in my life...the arrangement is beyond perfect.Zbigniew Preisner has a music ability not from this planet!!! <3
JustAnotherBohemian
As if the music wasn't enough, hearing her singing in ancient Greek makes it even more moving for a person of Greek origin like me 💔
agnieszkaakzseinga
Mam to jeszcze na kasecie magnetofonowej ... cudne... i duet Kieślowski/Preisner to było coś!!!
theluckbet
uwielbiam jego muzykę od lat 90-tych min. dzięki K. Kieślowskiemu.
Reinemichaud
Musique qui me poursuit depuis que j'ai vu ces trois films BLEU BLANC ROUGE. Fantastique
MARTA CORO
Increíblemente hermoso...
JBeigbeder
I Love this Master Piece...
El viento en tu rostro. Volarela
Genial. Sencillamente. Sublima la película, que ya de por sí es muy buena.
Stephanie Santos
perfect movie and soundtrack
Nevin Erkardas
Formidable !!Facinante.