Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition builds on the
foundation of Guy L. Beck's earlier work, which described the
theoretical role of sound in Hindu thought. Sonic Liturgy continues
the discussion of sound into the realm of Hindu ritual and musical
traditions of worship.
Beginning with the chanting of the Sama-Veda alongside the fire
sacrifices of the ancient Indo-Aryans and with the classical Gandharva
music as outlined in the musicological texts of Bharata and Dattila,
Beck establishes a historical foundation for an in-depth understanding
of the role of music in the early Puja rituals and Indian theater in the
vernacular poetry of the Bhakti movements in medieval temple worship of
Siva and Vishnu in southern India, and later in the worship of Krishna
in the northern Braj region. By surveying a multitude of worship
traditions, Beck reveals a continuous template of interwoven ritual and
music in Hindu tradition that he terms "sonic liturgy," a structure of
religious worship and experience that incorporates sound and music on
many levels.
In developing the concept and methods for understanding the phenomenon
of sonic liturgy, Beck draws from liturgical studies and ritual studies,
broadening the dimensions of each, as well as from recent work in the
fields of Indian religion and music. As he maps the evolution of sonic
liturgy in Hindu culture, Beck shows how, parallel to the development of
religious ritual from ancient times to the present, there is a less
understood progression of musical form, beginning with Vedic chants of
two to three notes to complicated genres of devotional temple music
employing ragas with up to a dozen notes. Sonic liturgy in its maturity
is manifest as a complex interactive worship experience of the Vaishnava
sects, presented here in Beck's final chapters.
