Iakovos Nafpliotis, (or Nafpliotis or Naupliotis or Naupliotes: ) (1864 in Naxos – December 5, 1942 in Athens) was the Archon Protopsaltis (First cantor) of the Holy and Great Church of Christ in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey). Iakovos Nafpliotis is one of the first chanters to have ever been recorded; many people also regard him as being one of the greatest.
Biography
Early life
Iakovos Nafpliotis was born in Greece, on the island of Naxos (Cyclades) in 1864. The Nafpliotis family, which was originally called "Anapliotis", originated from Anaplous (an area along the western shore of the Bosphorus), and ran a printing shop in Naxos until the first half of the 19th century. The first to change the name from "Anapliotis" to "Nafpliotis" was Anastasios Anapliotis, who was a member of the Philiki Etairia.
Musical education
Iakovos travelled to Constantinople at the age of seven, where he was acclaimed for his exceptional vocal quality and was ordained as canonarch at the church Saint Nicholas. He was later on ordained as First Canonarch of St. George's Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Church in 1878 (when he was only 14 years old) and served this function for three years.
Iakovos had heard exceptional Patriarchal protopsaltes (right chorus leading chanters) such as Ioannis Byzantios (the surname "Byzantios" meaning "originating from Constantinople"), Konstantinos Byzantios and Georgios Raidestinos II (the surname "Raidestinos" meaning "originating from Raidestos"). They, in turn, had heard their predecessors: Daniel from Tyrnabos, Iakovos Giakoumakis from Peloponnesos, Petros Byzantios, and Gregorios the Levite. Iakovos' main teacher was Nikolaos Stoyianovitz the Lambadarios (left chorus leading chanter).
Main career
Iakovos Nafpliotis was the last chanter to have progressively passed through all the psaltic ophikion (officium) stages, in the following order and duration:
First Canonarchos: 1878 to 1881 (14 to 17 years of age = 3 years of service) Second Domestikos: 1881 to 1888, (17 to 24 years of age = 7 years of service) First Domestikos: 1888 to 1905 (24 to 41 years of age = 17 years of service) Archon Lampadarios: 1905 to 1911, (41 to 47 years of age = 6 years of service) Archon Protopsaltes: 1911 to 1938 (47 to 74 = 27 years of service).
Iakovos Nafpliotis served at the Patriarchal Analogion for 60 years, and was blessed with the privilege of having chanted for a succession of 14 Patriarchs.
According to Angelos Boudouris, Iakovos Nafpliotis was concerned about the relative ignorance of chanters who were introduced into the Patriarchal Cathedral without going through the necessary officiums (such as the musicologist Protopsaltis Georgios Biolakis), and who were said by others to not be as proficient in the local Patriarchal style (hyphos) as was Iakovos. Iakovos, along with those of his subordinates, who had grown up in the Patriarchate, would "drag newcomers by the nose" in an obstinate effort to safekeep the tradition they had been taught. The unfortunate newcomers had no choice but to "follow along", in spite of their superior official positions. Boudouris was able to testify to all this because he grew up in the Patriarcheion as well, during the early 1900s.
Despite the general respect of Iakovos by the majority of people around him, there were several unsuccessful attempts to have him removed from the Patriarchate: Iakovos was actually replaced twice as Protopsaltis.according to Angelos Boudouris
Stylianos Tsolakidis, who was the First Canonarchos and later on helper Domestichos of Iakovos Nafpliotis – for a total of about 10 years – during the 1910 decade, claimed that Iakovos Nafpliotis was "a serious chanter and teacher, and that no one of his time chanted like him". Stylianos Tsolakidis had also chanted along Georgios Binakis (student of Nikolaos Raidestinos [who Tsolakidis had heard chant at a very late age], son and student of Georgios Raidestinos II) as first Canonarchos for two years, and along Nileas Kamarados as well, but no one in Constantinople had the "psaltic stability" or "stamima" of Iakovos. According to his testimony, Iakovos would chant everything by heart, in an upright position, without any corporal motion whatsoever, his lips barely moving. According to both Boudouris and Tsolakidis, Iakovos avoided talking in everyday life.
Iakovos Nafpliotis was once replaced for 6 months by Antonios Syrkas in the late 1930s. According to Boudouris, the latter did not know much about the Patriarchal method of chanting. During this period, Iakovos contemplated leaving Constantinople, given that some Greeks had doubts as to his right to remain on the Patriarchal analogion in terms of his citizenship, which (fortunately) did not seem to be an issue for the Turkish authorities.
Later years On the occasion of his 50th year of service, the entire personnel was remunerated in double.
Upon his retirement, the Patriarch Benjamin I bestowed upon him the title of "Honorary Protopsaltes of the Holy and Great Church of Christ".
Iakovos Nafpliotis retired in Athens, a city chosen by members of his family, where he died in 1942 at the age of 78 years. He was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens.
Works The disciple of Iakovos Nafpliotis, Angelos Boudouris, has left behind almost ten thousand pages of authentic psaltic manuscripts of which many include transcriptions of Iakovos’ traditional interpretations of the entire year-round, functional psaltic repertoire. Angelos Boudouris informs his readers that this great teacher had learned how to chant traditionally during his apprenticeship as second Domestikos next to the Lampadarios Nikolaos Stoyianovitz, who knew nothing of the reformed Round notation (also known as the Neo-Byzantine notation or Contemporary psaltic notation), which was in current use since Chrysanthos of Madytos.
During his service as first Domestikos, Iakovos Nafpliotis helped transcribe old notation books according to the reformed notation of the New Method (1899: Doxastarion of Petros Peloponnesios). He taught "psaltiki," or "the psaltic art" at the Patriarchal Music school of Phanarion in the Μεγάλη τοῦ Γένους Σχολὴ (also known as the Halki seminary), and also published a book in three volumes: the Forminx (the very name Konstantinos Pringos used later on for his own editions), which contains various hymns and songs for use in elementary schools.The first volume contains monophonic choir school songs (ἄσματα σχολικὰ μονόφωνα) in contemporary psaltic notation. The second volume of this anthology includes popular Western European songs translated to Greek, and even polyphonic songs for two and three voices (ἄσματα σχολικά δίφωνα), which were transcribed into contemporary psaltic notation. The third volume contains a collection of church songs, sung during ecclesiastical occasions, and includes polyphonic arrangements as well as monodic chant according to the traditional psaltic style (ὕμνοι).
Angelos Boudouris made extraordinary efforts to transcribe Iakovos’ performances of classical pieces, either by bringing his manuscripts to the Patriarchal church so as to modify them from one year to the next, or by listening to his children, Constantinos and Leontios (both Canonarchs of Iakovos), chant whatever their teacher had taught them. Nevertheless, Iakovos could not understand the purpose of such transcriptions, for he knew and taught everything by heart by continuous repetition. The Canonarchs would learn in this manner, after they had studied "παραλλαγή" ("solfeggio") of the classical pieces with their master.
Recordings His voice was recorded owing to the foresight of Patriarch Germanos V (1913–1918), who even contributed from his personal purse so as to finance some of the historic plates which were recorded under the label "Orfeon Records". Most of these recordings were realised with Konstantinos Pringos, who was actually protopsaltis in another church in Constantinople at the time.
According to the Protocanonarchos Stylianos Tsolakidis, these recordings are more of paedagogical nature: the tempo is very slow (which was eventually accelerated whenever there was lack of recording time), there is hardly any συνεπτυγμένος χρόνος-syneptigmenos chronos (a form of rubato), and analyseis - ἀναλύσεις (developments) are maintained to a strict minimum. This is the way Iakovos would chant so as to teach the basics of a hymn the "first time around". During live, ecclesiastical performances of these hymns in the Patriarchate, the interpretations were slightly more vivid, due in part to a variety of rhythmic nuances, yet never too far off from the actual recordings.
No one seems to know exactly how many such plates there really exist. Many originals are to be found in Thessaloniki and have been restored in a project led by Prof. Antonios Alygizakis, which were finally published as CDs by the end of 2008. Some records were obtained from Turkish national archives. Others had been found in the archives of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT). Others claim that the entire collection is to be found in the Cypriot Monastery of Kykkos.
Some of these historic recordings have been put on CD, but we are far from the minimal estimate of 6 hours (300 minutes and, at 3 minutes per plate = about 130 plates) that exist in various collectors’ safe boxes. Recently however these recordings have been put up for the benefit of all,Analogion : Links to the mp3 files are at the bottom part of the page in memory of the chanter, and those who admired him and made enormous sacrifices so as to obtain these recordings.
Teachings and hyphos (style) The patriarchal paedagogy of Iakovos, which was based in past on o/aural memory transmission, there was one other particularity, that of "chronos" and the way it was counted, which he managed to transmit to at least one of the few students who had the opportunity to be his disciple ever since a young age (Stylianos Tsolakidis, the others being Constantinos and Leontios Boudouris). Other students who studied at a later age (e.g. Angelos Boudouris, Anastasios Michaelides "Sobatzis", Konstantinos Pringos, Georgios Karakasis) were also permeated with many of the elements of Iakovos’ Majestuous Patriarchal style ("hyphos"). The many ways of counting the "chronos" (which is not the "rhythmos") and of combining "analyseis" (developments or "variations") are what allow a good chanter to chant a unique score in many ways, and which can lead to catastrophic performances by those who have not been taught by the Patriarchal method.
Although most of the chanters of Constantinople had good intervals and attacks (which is not the case of most chanters of today), their "politikon hyphos" or "style" is not to be confused with the "patriarchal style", where the repertoire chanted was different not only in composition (usually of abbreviated nature) as compared to some classical editions, but in terms of chronos counting (divided ("dieremenos"), unitary ("monosimos"), simple ("haplos"), complex ("synthetos" or "syneptigmenos chronos" which is not to be confused with syneptigmenos "rhythmos"), free ("elevtheros"), callophonic etc.), as well. Nevertheless, Iakovos would first teach using the classical editions and then only would he initiate his disciples to the particular compositions that were used in the Patriarchal church.
Most of the 14 Patriarchs as well as the numerous hierarchs that crossed Iakovos’ psaltic career were firm supporters of and would acclaim his traditional chanting. Those who were ignorant even went as far as to replace him once. During this episode and after his retirement, some areas of Greece, namely that of Chios, proposed that they add to his retirement funds so that he might continue to honour them with his serious, hegemonic and praying chant.