Robert Benford
Lepley
VISIONS WITHIN
SPIRITUAL
POEMS OF RAINER MARIA RILKE
INTERPRETED THROUGH VOCAL CHANTS & HARMONIES
MERYL STREEP poetry
recitation
ROBERT BENFORD
LEPLEY piano
THE NEW
YORK VOICES
Amy London alto
$14.95 ~
MS1215
Visions
Within
links the ancient past with the
present to create a new "spiritual sound". I composed
primitive-sounding chants woven into contemporary fugues and canons that circle
around illusive poly-rhythms as well as other pieces with ancestral harmonies
that evolve into lush tone clusters used in contemporary jazz. I used Rilke’s
poems because their profound existential nature has the power to connect ancient
symbols of the "sacred" found deep within the human psyche with
current forms of religious and secular spirituality that explore the
relationships between thought and emotion, life and death, fear and love,
personal faith and social justice. It is an honor to have Ms. Streep's sensitive
presentation of the poems on the recording, and I chose the remarkable New York
Voices to bring Visions Within into being. My hope is that this work has the
power to nurture healing of the inner life, and to transform the subconscious
universal spiritual symbols of peace, justice and compassion outwardly into
positive community values that nurture the common good and care for the poor,
that promote nonviolence, that respect the differences between people, and that
protect our sacred Earth.
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Robert
Benford Lepley is a
composer and a jazz and classical pianist who has performed with legendary
"big bands" such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Bob Crosby's
Bobcats as well as many well-known contemporary jazz musicians. He was also a
parish minister for twenty five years, and has been an activist and community
organizer since the 1960s. For six years he directed the Long Island Alliance
for Peaceful Alternatives - the largest peace organization on Long Island. He
holds graduate degrees in the areas of theology and choral composition. Mr.
Lepley is married to Martha Helen Chamberlain. They have one son, Benford
Chamberlain Lepley.
Rainer
Maria Rilke has long been
considered one of the world’s greatest spiritual poets. His mystical and
unique subjective view have influenced generations of later writers as well as
several prominent literary and spiritual movements. The meditational poems
interpreted on this recording are from the middle of Rilke’s career, having
been written between 1899 and 1903. During this stage of his life, Rilke was
striving for a personal, plain-spoken perspective on the self, the spirit and
the act of poetry. In these poems, Rilke looks inward as he seeks
"God/Spirit" within the dance between thought and emotion as well as
outward in "all the things of the world". Rilke's voice is one of a
poet seeking to nurture the inner and outer lives of people who seek a
meaningful place on a chaotic planet.
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www.robertlepleymusic.com
