''Kilar. Element and Prayer'' is a monograph on the life and work of Wojciech Kilar, a contemporary Polish composer, written by Leszek Polony, an outstanding Polish musicologist, music critic and theoretician.The book contains the authors reflections on the figure of Kilar and the phenomenon of his music, and is testament to Polonys own understanding of this music and the way he feels about it, supported, of course, by the analysis of the works themselves. The author does not lay any claims to express opinions about the objective value of Kilars music. The monograph constitutes a document of individual, albeit musicologically competent, perception and interpretation of this music. It contains an extensive illustrative material in the form of musical examples and photographs.