Beethoven began to lose his hearing when he was just 26 years old. This, however, did not stop him for more than 30 years from writing music and giving humanity creations that are still unsurpassed today.
At Crete there was once a lyre player. His name was Manolis Pasparakis. "I grieve the world, I trample on people and I do not know people. Oh! The panther life and how I dance it "! It was one of the mantinades he wrote.
Beethoven and Pasparakis, despite the fact that they served different types of music and obviously their range is something completely incomparable, they are united by a hard fate which they managed to turn into an advantage: The German composer and the Cretan lyre player created music using their soul.
Ο Manolis Pasparakis he lost his sight when he was just three years old. But even that problem did not prevent him from becoming one of the musicians who laid the foundations for the creation of contemporary Cretan music. He had no memories. He did not know what the lyre was like. This, however, for a fighter of life was… detail.
"She did not remember any pictures. He suffered from smallpox and lost his light when he was three years old. His father was the one who stood by him. His eyes widened. He was the one who saw his child sitting alone and without having anything creative to do and decided to take a lyre to pass his time. His father helped him a lot. She loved him very much. And my grandfather loved him and his death cost him a lot. At his funeral he had said the following shocking mantinada: "You are leaving my soul, my soul, my sweet consolation, that with your two eyes, mine also shone"", He stressed speaking to newsbeast.gr George Bageris, journalist of the electronic newspaper "ANOGI" and grandson of Manolis Pasparakis, son of the eldest daughter of the Cretan lyre player.
But how did this little boy who could not see and especially did not have pictures learn to play the lyre? "M. Pasparakis was tied to this lyre that his father bought him, he was trying to listen to sounds and bring them out on the lyre. He listened to the dancers' feet on the boards, picked up the rhythm and carried it on the lyre. "This is how the crooked trout came out, which is still one of the most demanding rhythms for a lyre player to make it out", stressed Giorgis Bageris and added:
"When you lose one sense, you develop another. I think this happened with Manolis Pasparakis. He lost his sight but developed his hearing. I have been told that he recognized someone by the way he walked. A friend of his came into the cafe and greeted him before the others spoke to him. I do not have many personal experiences from my grandfather but he was so dear to Anogia that I have learned many things. After all, we are talking about a man who left his mark on Cretan music ".
Manolis Pasparakis was born in 1911 and died on April 10, 1987 and his life was full of difficulties and pain. It was, however, full of music and festivities. "He married Eleni Samoli in Anogia in 1951. My grandmother met him at church shortly before the wedding and realized that he was blind The next day. But she loved him very much. He stood next to the rock unshakable. She loved him so much that in an earlier interview she had said that Pasparakis was her god for her. They had five children together. Giannis, Stefanos, Giorgis, Alexandra and Nikolia.
George died of a liver injury at the age of just 16. In honor of that child, I was named George "stressed the grandson of the great lyre player and added:" He lived through the Holocaust of Anogia and was uprooted along with 2.000 other Anogia people. They lived in villages of Rethymno and Heraklion until the time came, in 1946, to return and slowly, stone by stone to rebuild the village. His brother Demosthenes Pasparakis was a resistance fighter. He was a Leftist. Communist. He was an active citizen, with a point of view which he was not afraid to say. Until he died he remained faithful to KKE and immovable in his ideas ".
Manolis Pasparakis may have lived in the dark but he was never alone. "Everyone in the village loved and respected him. We must say that at his funeral there were thousands of people. Dozens of lyre players who accompanied him to his last home in the cemetery of Agia Paraskevi here in Anogia. His life is a lesson for all of us. He did what he always wanted to do. He lived his life and I think he left happy because he gave everything he had in his soul "said George Baggeris and then, excited, spoke about his grandfather's collaborator and the efforts made to record Pasparakis' work.
"Accompanying all this journey was Neoklis Saloustros with his lute. Essentially from one point onwards they lived a common life. They complemented each other. This respect and this love still exists today between the two families. They had gone to Athens with Neoklis Saloustros in the 70's for recordings that unfortunately were not completed. The internet mainly circulates excerpts from groups and chants of Anogia in the 60's and 70's. There were two record attempts. One from the University of Crete in the early 80's and the other in 2007 on the album "O Lyraris" in a co-production of ERT of Yakinthia and Seistros music publications.
In 2014, his statue was erected in honor of Pasparakis on the main road of Anogia. It is located under the Music Academy of Anogia, which when completed and inaugurated and officially handed over by his family and his lyre.
Stravos (although not at all αυτό politically correct this was the nickname of M. Pasparakis and thus his special playing became known) have been honored with special events in Yakinthia and years ago, in 1997, the Municipality of Anogia, in an event that mixed everyone the old fanatics of Anogia in a unique company in Meidani Square.
"Nikiforos Aerakis is the ultimate exponent of Stravos playing today. Continuators are also considered Maria and Costas Skoulas who are the grandchildren of Neoklis Saloustros and this is wonderful because it shows the continuation. There is also Aris Prevezanos, an exceptional lyrist that every time I hear him play Stravos' trout, I shudder "said G. Baggeris and then gave us two stories starring his grandfather.
"THE Psarantonis had once told a story about my grandfather:
The crook used to play when I was little and I used to go as a child to listen to the lyre and I would take the cigarette from his mouth and give it to him whenever he wanted. I was holding his cigarette while he was playing. A couple of times and the crook tells me:
-What's your name;
-Antoni
After a while I go again and I gave him the cigarette. And he tells me:
-Are you Antonakis?
- Yes, I tell him. And he shows me his lyre and tells me:
-My lyre is bored (s.s pregnant) and when she gives birth I will give you the best lyre!
"I believed it" says Psarantonis "and I am still waiting for her to give birth"!
"There is a story that at first I had a hard time believing but I finally confirmed it by talking to two people who were with him that night: It was shortly after the fall of the junta. A group had started and was passing by the neighborhoods and they were singing. They played their lyres and lutes and made mantinades.
At one point a very strong storm caught up and they sat down somewhere to take shelter. Suddenly all the lights went out and they literally could not see their noses. Then the storm stopped but they could not leave because it was dark. So my grandfather said to them: take me by the hand and I will take you to your homes. And that's how it happened. He led them all safely and in the end he went to his own!