Iakovos Nafpliotis - Iakovos Nafpliotis About Simon Karas

Iakovos Nafpliotis About Simon Karas

Iakovos also met and heard Simon Karas, a music researcher whose ideas and "style" of chanting is known worldwide but is also contested by many (namely the Hypermachos Association) in Greece. Simon Karas is one of the few musicians that Iakovos Nafpliotis, who was otherwise very conservative, even in the number of words he’d utter, criticizes overtly by stating the following:

The teacher has formed the opinion that Karas is an intellectual man ("λόγιος - logios") with a desire to work on the matters of our music, of which music he happens to be a fan and supporter ("θιασώτης καὶ ὑποστηρικτὴς - thiaswtis kai hyposthrikths"), even though he is not acquainted with it (" ἂν καὶ δὲν τὴν γωνρίζει - an kai den thn gnwrizei").

Iakovos Nafpliotis' opinion is at the center of a flaming current debate, as Simon Karas had collected information concerning oral tradition, much in the same way as other renowned musicologists of his time (for instance Spyridon Peristeris in Athens and Kallinikos Theodoulos in Cyprus. In spite of the worldwide recognition of Simon Karas' musicological positions, which are heralded by many of his students and followers, many are those who hang on to Iakovos' opinion, given the latter's excellence in the practice of ψαλτικὴ ("psaltiki" or "the psaltic art").