PWM

search
Advanced
Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego
biuletyn informacji publicznej

News

"I treat film as a private challenge" – a conversation with Michał Lorenc

2015-03-20

Maciej Łukasz Gołębiowski talks to Michał Lorenc who has just started his cooperation with PWM Edition.

How did it happen that you became a member of the group of artists represented by PWM Edition?

The editor in chief called me and proposed publishing some of my scores. I was really shocked. I treat writing film music as creating sound tissue which is to be inscribed in image to make its background or to complement it. I have never considered it to be a separate concert oeuvre. And now PWM Edition wants to publish that music in the way Penderecki is published. I would never expect it and therefore I feel deeply honoured.

We can read in your CV that you started your adventure with music as a 15-year old, in a student tent base in the Bieszczady Mountains, where you met Belon, Kleyff and Bielecki. Do you ever come back there, in the mountains?

Yes, I do, and each of these visits is different and unique. Although the names of the towns are the same, I get an impression that everything has changed. You cannot compare the reality there to the matrix of memories in my head that I first created nearly 50 years ago. But music came much earlier in my life. As a boy from a good Warsaw home, I had piano lessons already at an early stage. Music drew me in. I started composing my first melodies when I was 10-12 years old. Then those melodies started to lead their own lives thanks to my friends, mountain guides, and wandered along the tracks long before me.

Could we say then that you are a composer by vocation rather than by education?

I do not at all feel like a composer. I can't compose. I am just a melody writer. Something comes to my mind and I try to use it to build more. However, I am only able to do it when I see the image, the film. The film and emotions it carries, its theme and script are not a limitation for me, but rather a necessary inspiration and determination of the frame in which I am to move. I am like Leonard Zelig from Woody Allen's film. I have never written other music than film music. I can't. I wouldn't dare.

You had a chance to work in the American Dream Factory. What impressions did you bring back with you?

A person speaking English called me and said he was Bob Rafelson. I know his films by heart, so I thought it was a joke and asked him to call me back later. At least in an hour. I asked Cezary Harasimowicz, a regular Hollywood visitor, to help me resolve that kind of joke. He came, the telephone rang again, and it was only after I saw the solemn face of Cezary holding a second receiver that I realised it was not a joke. Rafelson said I had a flight ticket booked in three days, a limousine and a hotel... And so I landed up in California. Rafelson represented a passing generation of directors. Working with him on Blood and Wine meant long hours of talking every day and arranging details together. It was a real partnership for the sake of creating something unique together. Then I wrote music to one more film in Hollywood and could experience working with a new generation of American film producers. They would come and show me the music they liked and would require me to write the same but in a different way. In the meantime, I was invited to work on Poznań’56 and shortly after on Bastard. I came back to Poland and the circumstances made me stay here. I don't regret.

What is film music like nowadays?

It is a genre that is constantly changing and, just like everything else, undergoes trends and passing fashions. Once those fashions would not last long. Now, in the era of the Internet, when new directions are spreading rapidly and the aggressiveness of the market is increasing, the role of music and the position of the composer in film have degraded. Beside five "hot" names, the composer is a service provider who is required to possess craft skills. Everybody writes in a similar way. I get an impression that we are far behind unforgettable musical experiences in film. Film masterpieces from the past, which were full of sophisticated artistry, are not interesting for a modern viewer prompted to continuously exercise his experiences by unexpected action turns, fast montage and narration speed. Today Antonioni would not have an opportunity to dazzle with The Adventure.

And your style?

Adjusting to the spirit of new times is not my forte, but, unfortunately, I have always liked showing off. The desire to play a part in film pushes you to writing a strong theme or to direct the film threads in such a way as to tell your own, second story with your music, which can give the image another dimension. I begin treating film as something that is my own, personal experience. As a private challenge. When I understood that music in film had all the characteristics of audience manipulation, and the composer was supposed to be absolutely loyal to the theme of the film, the servile approach started to be much more difficult for me. When I was young, arrogant and self-confident, playing Zelig was really easy. With time, understanding the value of music took away my cheek and ease of writing. To compose for the orchestra, you need to have skills, knowledge and understanding, also of people who are to play what you have painstakingly created at home. If I were to write to the script of 300 Miles to Heaven today, I'm afraid that I might not be ready to face it. I want to expect too much of myself, but, in fact, I know too little to meet these expectations.

How do you work on your music?

In the past you would write film music step by step, bar by bar, synchronously to image. While writing bar 24, you never knew what awaited you in bar 28. It brought interesting themes that were often really fascinating. Now, just like a great majority of film musicians, I work on my computer. You can see and hear everything, and it is simple, easy and comfortable. The times of improvised themes and astonishing music incidents in film are gone. Film is a very young area of communication, that is increasingly driven into strict codes of rules and discipline. Would I now have the power and courage to write music to Pasikowski's Pigs, if it was blatantly inspired by works of Charles Ives at that time? I don't know.

You are turning 60 this year. Such an anniversary is always a good time to reflect. Are you happy?

Looking back, I have an impression that I got from life more than I could have expected. I'm not only speaking about music, but about people whom I met, about my children, grandchildren or even my dog that I walk each day in the woods. It all adds to my personal happiness and keeps me strong every day. I can only be thankful. 

fot. Waldemar Kielichowski

Most popular:

THE TALE OF THE HEART. FAVOLA IN MUSICA: a joint project by Aleksander Nowak and Radek Rak from ANAKLASIS on sale as of 6th October

It is a musical-literary tale about a quest for identity, truth, and for what makes us human. The new stage work by Aleksander Nowak – which is, at the same time, Radek Rak’s operatic debut – explores the sources of good and evil, fusing reality with mythology and steering towards ‘the left-hand side of the world’. The authors spin a tale about the dual human nature. THE TALE OF THE HEART. FAVOLA IN MUSICA – the album that presents their joint project – will go on sale on 6th October.

 

Różycki’s Adventures in Jazzland. The album INSPIRED BY LUDOMIR RÓŻYCKI from ANAKLASIS on sale as of 28th August

Spectacularly successful as Ludomir Różycki’s music was in his lifetime, it is seldom programmed nowadays. All the same, such remarkable art could hardly fall into utter oblivion. It has attracted and fascinated excellent jazz pianist Kuba Stankiewicz, who has translated it into the language of jazz. The effects have been recorded and released on ANAKLASIS label’s most recent album, INSPIRED BY LUDOMIR RÓŻYCKI, which goes on sale as of 28th August.
 

PWM przenosi się na Wiejską

PWM Edition is entering the execution phase of the revitalisation of its Warsaw department. With the commencement of the renovation and the implementation of the assumptions of the architectural design, the Hire Department and the editorial office of “Ruch Muzyczny” are moving to a temporary headquarters at 19 Wiejska Street, Warsaw.

THE QUEEN THAT LOVED A GERMAN. OUR ALBUM WANDA PREMIERES ON 31ST MARCH!

This is by no means a piece about the centuries-long Polish-German conflict. It is, instead, a tale of impossible love, of tragic conflict between personal happiness and the common good.

PWM Edition is the exclusive representative of the Ricordi publishing house in Poland

PWM Edition resumes cooperation with the Italian publishing house Ricordi, as well as with its international partners forming Universal Music Publishing Classics & Screen. This means that rentals of orchestral materials from the catalogues of all publishing houses belonging to Classics & Screen is carried out in Poland by Dział Zbiorów Nutowych (Sheet Music Department) of PWM.

#SHARPENYOUREARS WITH ANAKLASIS: THE LABEL’S THIRD BIRTHDAY

The most fascinating phenomena in contemporary music; a wide range of genres; outstanding works, excellent composers and performers – are the trademarks of the record label ANAKLASIS, launched by PWM Edition. ANAKLASIS is now celebrating its third birthday. It continues to grow at a dizzying pace and maintains the high artistic standards of its releases.

VIRTUOSITY WITH A FLOURISH. ELŻBIETA SIKORA’S CONCERTOS ALBUM PREMIERES ON 2ND DECEMBER!

When asked to attempt a definition of her music, she called it lyrical expressionism. The choice of this term says much about the emotional intensity of Elżbieta Sikora’s music, which may reflect the experience of her two home countries, Poland and France, but is also a consequence of her artistic maturation in an age when two powerful trends – the avant-garde and neo-Classicism – were vying for the palm. Such a label may also result from the artist’s focus on the listener as her target, whom she invariably attempts to surprise, shock, or bewilder.

Polish chamber music of the 19th and 20th centuries in Estonia!

In cooperation with the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn, we invite you to two concerts and lectures presenting the diversity and beauty of Polish music. 

The first “ChopinLand Piano Competition” in Japan goes down in history

Over 300 performances of works by Polish composers, 114 finalists, a total of 36 repertoire pieces in 6 age categories, 20 winners, 17 jurors, 4 competition locations and one day of master classes. The piano competition for children and teenagers, “ChopinLand Piano Competition,” is behind us – an extraordinary project that took several months, which PWM Edition organized in Japan. Thanks to cooperation with local partners, Polish music could reach hundreds of young pianists and their teachers, creating the ambassadors of Polish music in the Land of the Rising Sun.