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Wojciech Kilar, 81; pianist and prolific composer

Mr. Kilar wrote scores for many films, including ‘The Pianist.’’TOMASZ GZELL/EPA

WARSAW — Wojciech Kilar, a Polish pianist and composer of classical music and scores for many films, including Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning ''The Pianist'' and Francis Ford Coppola's ''Bram Stoker's Dracula,'' died Sunday. He was 81.

The composer died in his hometown of Katowice, southern Poland, following a long illness, according to Jerzy Kornowicz, head of the Association of Polish Composers.

A modest man who often avoided public attention, Mr. Kilar's main love was composing symphonies and concertos, and he always put that above movies, even though he wrote the scores of dozens of films. He drew inspiration from Polish folk music and religious prayers and hymns, which he had learned in Latin as an altar boy.

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But it was film music, especially for Coppola's 1992 erotic horror movie, that brought this prolific vanguard composer to the world's attention and commissions from other top directors, including Jane Campion and her ''Portrait of a Lady.''

In an interview with PLUS, a journal about Polish-American affairs, he recalled asking Coppola in Los Angeles what kind of music he was expecting and the director replied: ''I did my part. You are the composer. Do what you want.''

Mr. Kilar wrote music for more than 130 movies in Poland and abroad, but ''Dracula'' won him the Best Score Composer award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1992.

His dense, broad, and heart-swelling music is very evocative and seems destined to illustrate movies. Richly instrumented, it uses repetition of a simple melody, making it sound like romantic classical music. His trademark sounds involve basses and cellos.

In 2003 the British Academy of Film and Television Arts gave the composer an award for his score for ''The Pianist.'' Mr. Kilar also wrote music for Polanski's ''The Ninth Gate.''

In Poland, he was known for working with three influential Polish film directors: Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Krzysztof Zanussi.

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His wife of over 40 years, Barbara, died in 2007. They had no children.