Ancient Tower

“Mr. Lepley’s chants have an ethereal, timeless quality. Intriguing!” Billboard Magazine, July 20, 1996

Ancient Tower captures the soaring, searching imagery of one of the world’s quintessential modern poets blended beautifully with intricate, deeply spiritual chants resulting in a shining performance certain to define “sacred” music. Robert Lepley’s choral compositions were released in 1996 by Earthbeat Records, distributed by Warner Brothers Records, and contains his piano compositions and choral settings of six poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. These poems are narrated by actress Merrill Streep, and are performed by acclaimed jazz ensemble “New York Voices.” The music is a synthesis of very old and very new melodic lines and vocal compositions.

Three of the pieces are based upon church modes” used by writers of Gregorian Chant, and consist of melodic lines drawn from these ancient sources that journey through fugues and canons. They are then transformed by contemporary techniques such as polyrhythms and clustered harmonies from jazz. Two of the pieces are motets, and one (“I Live My Life In Growing Orbits”) is what this composer calls a “post-modern hymn.” The central element in his music is an expression of spirituality, and the profound poetry from Rilke’s Book of the Monastic Life has been the perfect vehicle for Mr. Lepley’s musical and spiritual journey. He chose the acclaimed “New York Voices” – a versatile and uniquely creative vocal group that has recorded with the likes of the Count Basie Orchestra - to record his music. Robert Lepley has created a new and unique sound for a new and very different kind of existential and psychologically sacred text. The mystical music of the Ancient Tower is the Gregorian Chant of the New Millennium.

The recording was recently re-released by MSR Classics under the title Visions Within.To order the CD, go to http://www.msrcd.com/ and search for Catalogue Number MS1215. Also available at the iTunes store and most other internet sources.