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Series Editor's Preface
- University of South Carolina Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Series Editor’s Preface This new book is an important sequel to Professor Beck’s pioneering earlier book in this series—Sonic Theology: Hinduism and Sacred Sound, published in 1993. The earlier book focused on theoretical understandings of sacred sound in Hindu traditions from the earliest times, whereas this sequel takes us into the actual, lived world of Hindu ritual and liturgy, which the author refers to as “sacred sound in practice as opposed to sacred sound in theory.” “Sonic liturgy” is a new category for understanding religious music in comparative perspective, thus enriching the traditional fields of ritual and religious studies. Although this book focuses principally on Hindu ritual and its musical dimensions, it provides a universal methodology for the study of sacred sound in whatever religious traditions are being studied. Frederick M. Denny ...