The war is not anti-Karas.
What is the war then? Of course, there is a war, correct? But should there even be a war? Are you interested in wars? Because I am not.
As the saying goes, all's fair in love and war. So in this 'war', anything goes? Anything can be said, any attack made, as long as it supports our cause? Do we discard all ethical boundaries, let alone academic standards?
The Patriarchate has never made any condemnations against Karas and never would. But if we imply that they did, it will help our cause.
"Heresy" is an emotionally-loaded, passionate, polemical, non-academic term. Historically, it has incited war and death. It has no place in music studies, even if the topic is a type of sacred music. But if we employ it, it can serve our goals.
Is this the logic we ought to use?
Now, as far as the rest of your post is concerned, I appreciate your thought, time, and effort. (Are you retired? Because I wish I had the time you seem to have at your disposal.
)
Mr. Giannoukakis, I am not a musicologist, nor do I claim to be one. I am not an expert, nor do I claim to be one. What I am is a chanter of byzantine music with many years of experience. I defer to a group of reputable specialists whom I have come to trust. They devote their lives to studying and teaching the theory and practice of byzantine chant.
They don't agree with every single thing that Kara said or did, but their overall theoretical framework is based on Kara's extensive work. The theory works wonderfully in practice and has satisfied the musical dilemmas I sought to solve while studying under "traditional" chanters.
What I have come to understand, with Kara's help, is that what we grew up with, what we heard in our churches all our lives, what practices we followed may not necessarily be (strictly speaking) traditonal.
In this respect, Karas is a reformer, not a revisionist. He did not create "arbitrary" and "new" things. He sought to bring us back to our roots.
If his revisionism of Byzantine music was not enough, he went further on to revise Greek folk music. There are many contemporaries of Karas (renowned Greek folk singers, as well as people in the villages that he asked to perform their traditional songs) who are on record describing his methods, his revisionism and his demand that the singer change the melody to fit his view (!!!). If you are curious, I will post those witnesses for your consideration.
Mr. Giannoukakis, here you take the argument (hopefully, not the war
)against Kara one step further. Most critics say that he did an impeccable job with Greek folk music. He traveled all around Greece to record and transcribe songs that might've been lost, just like many of the traditional practices have been lost in many of our churches.
One man is the only person with the knowledge and EVERYONE else is clueless? You have unlearnedly labeled people in this forum and without thoroughly checking your hypotheses conferred upon some the designation of "self-appointed experts", yet you do not question Karas' self-decreed omniscience in Byzantine music and Greek folk song?
I would be very careful to use the term "expert" in referring to myself. Thinkers are more careful these days in how they refer to their role in a field. Not only does it seem distateful to refer to oneself as an "expert". It is also inaccurate, especially in artistic fields. In general, you see many in the first half of the 20th century using the term "expert" much more frequently than you do now.
But, since you seek to prove that Karas represents the only tradition. . .Since you are evidently a champion of the Karas method. . . Let's begin a civil and academic dialogue.
As far as the rest of your post is concerned, I appreciate the time and effort you've place in trying to start a discussion. But when there are so many erroneous premises in place, I don't see the benefit. I never said that Karas represents the only tradition. What does that even mean? Karas points us to our rich traditions. HE is not the tradition. And I am not a "champion" of the Karas method. It might be convenient to try to pigeonhole me as one, but I never said I was.
Really, the main reason why I'm even writing is to point out that
a) "heresy" and "heretic" have no place in musicological (not to mention civil, academic, impersonal, objective, expert) discussions.
b) the Patriarchate has NOT in any way censured (or as some Americans would say "refudiated"....haha) Karas' approach.
Perhaps the title for this thread should be "Patriarchal Censure and Heresy? The Anti-Karas Inaccuracies"
