Shota
Παλαιό Μέλος
I uploaded a letter of Egon Wellesz to Konstantinos Psachos, where he writes that some time ago he sent to Psachos his book and article, expresses admiration for Psachos' work and asks some questions, at the same time expressing desire to collaborate with Psachos in the field of Byzantine musicology. The letter was scanned by Eustathios Makris, some I'm a simple "uploader" here 
The basic information is as follows: the letter was published in "Μουσικός Ελληνομνήμων", Vol. 4 (September-December 2009). It is preceded by an introduction by Markos Dragoumis (student of Wellesz in the UK), which informs us that the letter was found in the archive of Melpo Merlier. One might suppose that Psachos gave the letter to Merlier for translation (in case he didn't know German, which is not clear, however). Dragoumis then discusses the possibility whether Psachos ever answered the letter. He says that for this question can be answered only after one studies the archive of Wellesz kept at the State Library in Vienna. Dragoumis goes on to say that Wellesz, Hoeg and Tillyard were philhellenes and held Greeks in respect, which in particular is apparent from the letter of Wellesz. The Greeks however rejected them. Here Dragoumis mentions Psachos, Karas and Georgiades as examples*. When Merlier asked Psachos in 1930 to help her with recording examples of the Byzantine music, he rejected her offer by sending a provocative letter. Dragoumis concludes that luckily in the second half of the 20th c. the two sides gave up the arms and started a civilised dialogue, as it should have been from the beginning.
The reason I uploaded this letter is that there seem to circulate in Greece various theories on Western conspiracy and attempts to block or ignore the Greek research. The facts on the other hand seem to indicate that a specific group of Greek researchers (Psachos and Karas, in particular) itself isolated itself from the Western researchers and rejected any attempt of collaboration. Georgiades was allowed to publish in Byzantinische Zeitschrift and Karas could go to the international congress on Byzantine studies, so at present I can't qualify the boycott claim in any other way as a gross exaggeration. Constantin Floros and Dimitri Conomos are two other Greeks whom the Western musicological research held and still holds in high respect. So I would be very interested in hearing concrete facts of the alleged systematic mistreatment on behalf of the Western scholars. I don't say that there wasn't some degree of bias (as I don't know), but this is one thing and legendary fights is another (makes me to think of Prof. Stathis, a man of giant stature and herculean strength, wrestling down berserk Jorgen Raasted).
* Psachos seems to have ignored the Western research in his scientific work entirely (see Tillyard's "The Antiphons of the Byzantine Octoechus", The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 36, 1935/1936, p. 133). Karas went as far as to say that studying the Byzantine music is entirely the Greek matter (see the same article, p. 133).
The basic information is as follows: the letter was published in "Μουσικός Ελληνομνήμων", Vol. 4 (September-December 2009). It is preceded by an introduction by Markos Dragoumis (student of Wellesz in the UK), which informs us that the letter was found in the archive of Melpo Merlier. One might suppose that Psachos gave the letter to Merlier for translation (in case he didn't know German, which is not clear, however). Dragoumis then discusses the possibility whether Psachos ever answered the letter. He says that for this question can be answered only after one studies the archive of Wellesz kept at the State Library in Vienna. Dragoumis goes on to say that Wellesz, Hoeg and Tillyard were philhellenes and held Greeks in respect, which in particular is apparent from the letter of Wellesz. The Greeks however rejected them. Here Dragoumis mentions Psachos, Karas and Georgiades as examples*. When Merlier asked Psachos in 1930 to help her with recording examples of the Byzantine music, he rejected her offer by sending a provocative letter. Dragoumis concludes that luckily in the second half of the 20th c. the two sides gave up the arms and started a civilised dialogue, as it should have been from the beginning.
The reason I uploaded this letter is that there seem to circulate in Greece various theories on Western conspiracy and attempts to block or ignore the Greek research. The facts on the other hand seem to indicate that a specific group of Greek researchers (Psachos and Karas, in particular) itself isolated itself from the Western researchers and rejected any attempt of collaboration. Georgiades was allowed to publish in Byzantinische Zeitschrift and Karas could go to the international congress on Byzantine studies, so at present I can't qualify the boycott claim in any other way as a gross exaggeration. Constantin Floros and Dimitri Conomos are two other Greeks whom the Western musicological research held and still holds in high respect. So I would be very interested in hearing concrete facts of the alleged systematic mistreatment on behalf of the Western scholars. I don't say that there wasn't some degree of bias (as I don't know), but this is one thing and legendary fights is another (makes me to think of Prof. Stathis, a man of giant stature and herculean strength, wrestling down berserk Jorgen Raasted
).* Psachos seems to have ignored the Western research in his scientific work entirely (see Tillyard's "The Antiphons of the Byzantine Octoechus", The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 36, 1935/1936, p. 133). Karas went as far as to say that studying the Byzantine music is entirely the Greek matter (see the same article, p. 133).