Iakovos Nafpliotis - Works

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 ψαλτικὴ ("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.

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.