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Guy L. Beck is a scholar, author, musician, educator, historian of religions, and musicologist. A Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (Oxford University, UK), he is Lecturer in Philosophy, Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Tulane University, and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Loyola University New Orleans. As a scholar and historian of religion, Guy Beck is the first to publish a comprehensive study of the nature and function of sacred sound (Nada-Brahman) in the Hindu religion, which was developed by applying the category of 'sonic theology'. In a sequel work, he has provided the first extensive analysis of ritual and music in Hinduism through the paradigm of 'sonic liturgy'. As an educator, he has created the first college textbook on music in the major world religions with an accompanying CD of recordings. As a musician, Beck is the first American performer of Hindustani vocal music, the first to earn a vocal music degree in India, and the first to perform vocal music in an all-India conference of Hindustani classical music. As a musicologist, he has produced the first and most complete collection of field recordings, translations, and annotations of the hymns and religious songs of the Radhavallabha Sampradaya, a Vaishnava or Krishna sect based in Vrindaban in northern India. ==Background== Born in New York City as Guy Rice Sincock on 3 August 1948, Beck was brought up in a musical family in the Forest Hills area. With English roots on his father's side extending back to the 17th century, and Swedish on his mother's side, in Minneapolis, he was exposed to classical and popular music from an early age from his natural father, Harold Rice Sincock (1915–1994) a noted New York pianist, vocalist, and vocal arranger for Broadway and night club acts in the 1940s and 1950s. Known professionally as Harold Cooke or Harold Cook, Guy's father worked for composer Harold Arlen (''Wizard of Oz'') in Broadway shows (''Hooray For What?''), accompanied a young Judy Garland, and did vocal arrangements for Kay Thompson and songstress Kate Smith ("God Bless America"). He was the vocal arranger for the 1940 Broadway musical ''Two For the Show'', starring Betty Hutton and Eve Arden, which introduced the popular standard, "How High the Moon," sung by Alfred Drake. As a vocalist, Harold sang in several quartets including the one known as "The Martins" with composer Hugh Martin ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas") and lyricist Ralph Blane. After serving in the Navy in WWII, Mr. Cooke was featured as staff pianist and master of ceremonies at the Blue Angel night club in Manhattan where he used to accompany celebrity singers, including Pearl Bailey, Kaye Ballard, Russell Nype, Andy Williams, and the young Harry Belafonte. As a composer, he wrote the popular, "Moonrise," "People Like You," and "It's April Again," the latter song being recorded and broadcast on radio by friend and mentor, piano legend Cy Walter, also from Minneapolis. His song "People Like You" was featured in the 1951 film, ''Casa Manana'', starring Robert Clarke. Inspired and taught by his father, Guy developed a professional piano style of his own as he played several venues in Syracuse in the 1980s, including forming a jazz trio, which led to his position as lobby pianist at the Hotel Syracuse (1989-1990). His repertoire included many songs of the Syracuse-born Oscar-winning composer Jimmy Van Heusen. While in New Orleans (since 1995), Beck played in the French Quarter for several years at Mr. B's Bistro and the Pelican Club, incorporating blues and jazz elements into his playing. From 1958 to 1966, changing his name to Guy Leon Beck, Guy lived in the Syracuse area with his mother (interior designer Dale Hanson Beck) and adoptive father, George Anthony Beck (1908–1977), FIDSA (Fellow, Industrial Designer's Society of America), leading industrial designer, manager at General Electric Company, and president of George A. Beck Associates. Here he received formal training in choral singing from Alan A. Allen while attending Fayetteville-Manlius High School, and studied classical piano under Prof. George Mulfinger (Syracuse University) for several years. Prof. Mulfinger had studied in Germany under Emil Von Sauer, a pupil of Franz Liszt. As a teenager Guy was absorbed in the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, and Debussy. He also sang and played bass guitar and keyboards in local combos. From 1966–1970, he attended the University of Denver, where he studied social sciences, economics, philosophy, music, and religion. As a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, he was music arranger for the 1967 Homecoming performance of the musical, Showboat. During the summer of 1969, Guy worked as a management trainee in a shipping company in Cape Town, South Africa, sponsored by the AIESEC student-exchange program. While witnessing first-hand the injustices of the South African apartheid system, he experienced a life-changing exposure to Hindu religion and culture in Durban. Guy is the elder brother of artist and guitarist James D. Beck (deceased), industrial designer Benjamin J. Beck, partner in the design firm Eleven (Boston), and sister Naneese Beck Bonnell of Manlius, New York. His siblings also include brother David Ferry of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and sister Patricia Caillouet of Littleton, Colorado. On November 22, 1979, in Kolkata, India, Guy was married to artist Kajal Dass, eldest granddaughter of leading Indian industrialist 'Karmavir' Alamohan Dass of Dassnagar, Howrah, West Bengal (see Wikipedia article on Alamohan Das). The traditional Hindu wedding ceremony was conducted by renowned Sanskrit scholar and professor, Pandit Gaurinath Sastri. Raised in a liberal religious environment, Guy attended the Episcopal Church and sang in choirs while at St. James Military School in Faribault, Minnesota (1957–58), and was later exposed to Christian Science, Unitarianism, and Freemasonry. Both of his grandfathers and several uncles were active in Scottish Rite Masonry and the Shriners. Guy became a Master Mason in 1986 and remains a member of Fayetteville Central City Lodge No. 305. He joined the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Jurisdiction, in 1987 (Valley of Syracuse), achieving the 32nd Degree, and also served as musician or organist in several lodges. His exposure to the idealism of Christian Science ("the world is spiritual, not material") paved the way for his later acceptance of Hindu idealism in the form of Vedanta philosophy in which nothing in the universe truly exists apart from pure consciousness in the form of Brahman. On the other hand, his participation in Freemasonry was partly guided by his discovery of elements of Hindu mysticism and Eastern religions in the advanced degrees of the Scottish Rite. Guy was drawn to Eastern religions and Yoga in the 1960s, inspired by the writings of Swami Vishnudevananda, Rudyard Kipling, Ram Dass (Richard Alpert), as well as the music of Pandit Ravi Shankar (sitar) and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (sarod). By 1970, seeking knowledge of Indian spirituality and vocal music, and desiring a deeper sense of community apart from the rapidly changing counter-cultural milieu, he embraced devotional Hinduism (Bhakti-Yoga) as inspired by the writings and public lectures of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada of the Gaudiya Sampradaya (Bengal Vaishnavism). He took spiritual initiation (diksha) in 1971 from Srila Prabhupada, and received the name of Santosh Das ("satisfaction"). For several years he trained in Sanskrit and Bengali languages at Columbia University as part of his editorial service (1972–1976) in the Sanskrit Department of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) Press and the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, New York and Los Angeles. He was appointed Sanskrit Editor for ''Back To Godhead'' magazine in New York, and Head of the Sanskrit Department for Bhaktivedanta Book Trust in Los Angeles. He also served in India as president of New Delhi ISKCON Temple in 1978, and previously in 1972 as organist and treasurer in the USA for the travelling road show called "Transcendental Rock Opera," directed by legendary devotee Vishnujan Swami. For his dedicated service and spiritual advancement, Beck received the title of 'Bhakti Sastri' ("Professor of Devotion"). During his initial visit to India in March 1975, Beck was attracted to the devotional singing at the Sri Radhavallabha Temple in Vrindaban, a Hindu holy place in northern India associated with the god Krishna. The Radhavallabha sect represents a genuine devotional tradition native to the area (Braj) where Krishna and his associates lived. Seeking clarification regarding the link between devotional Hinduism and Indian classical vocal music, he received valuable guidance in New York from Swami Nadabrahmananda (Divine Life Society of Swami Shivananda) on the nature and importance of vernacular songs in Hindu religious experience. As a result, Beck spent the next five years (1976–1980) in India studying Hindustani classical and devotional vocal music in Kolkata (Calcutta), New Delhi, and Vrindaban, under various Gurus and distinguished exponents. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guy Beck」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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