From Boudouris' Mousikokritika,

$105 , p. 396

" His family came from Chios island. He was born in Constantinople in 
1849 in Mega Revma of Bosphorus. He became a student in music of 
Xatzi-Panagioti Kiltzanides from Proussa. In very young age he served as 
kanonarches of Gerasimos Kannelides, chanter of the church of Christ 
Saviour in Galata. He wasn't well educated ("anthrwpos oligwn 
grammatwn"), very musical ("mousikwtatos"), voice rough and fake ("fwnh 
traxeia kai no8h"). He chanted in many churches of the Archdiocese: in 
Taxiarxis of Mega Revma, in Panagia Kaffatiani, in St John "Ton Chion", 
and in St Constantine of Stavrodromion. As a chanter he followed his 
teacher Kiltzanides from whom he was taught the theory of ecclesiastical 
music as well as that of the asian music; he also knew about 
non-ecclesiastical (folk) rhythms ("gnwstis tis ekswterikis ry8mopoieias").

$106

Despite his lack of study, Neleus formed his own notational system with 
which he was writing his musical compositions, usually arranged from 
lines and musical theseis of other pieces of older or newer teachers. 
This notation system was based on the notation of the 3 teachers with 
the addition of some other signs to denote the silence of melos ("tis 
pausews tou melous"). It was perfectly suitable for his rough vocal 
instrument. He was teaching his system to his students without any 
theory book. That resulted in his system to stay with his students but 
without any theoretical knowledge of basis

$107

He has elementary knowledge of rhythm. For the sake of rhythm he changed 
the writing of well-established musical lines. He accepted the odd 
rhythm ("ton peritton ry8mon") and variety in the trisemos (3/4) and 
tetrasemos (4/4). He chanted always with the support of helpers and 
sub-helpers ("domestikwn kai paradomestikwn"), usually his own mathemata 
completely changed ("alloiwmena") with regard to notation, rhythmically 
arranged to disimos (2/4) and tetrasimos (4/4). He has the custom to 
change the tempo ("xronikh agwgh") in the middle of the piece.

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Although completely ignorant ("entelws adahs") of physics and 
mathematics, for 25 years he persistently worked towards defining the 
tonal intervals of ecclesiastical music via the chord-based fractions. 
The result of this many-year long project was the definition of the 
intervals of just the diatonic scales on the basis of the guide og 
Panagiotis Kiltzanides.

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Because he suffered from heart dicease during the last years of his life 
he was muscially inactive. He stayed in Mega Revma, Bosphorus where he 
died poor and suffering poverty in 1922. His funeral was funded by the 
local community. He left many compositions written in his own notational 
system which were distributed to people here and there. Some of his 
fanatical students  include Dimitrios Boutsinas, Ioannis Doukas, 
Nikolaos Vlahopoulos (who had married Neleus' daughter), Ioannis 
Xatzi-Konstantis from Besiktasi, Basileios Kamarados (his son), Ioannis 
Adamantos (chanter in Vlaga, then priest and finally archimandrite), 
Ioannis Zaharopoulos (from Anatolia), Nikolaos Angelidis (from 
Bogadzikioy), Christos Vlahopoulos (chanter of St Charalambos of 
Bembekion) and Ioannis Palasis.

Footnotes:

In the interpretation and understanding of the various theoretical books 
which he tried to study this teacher, who only knew basic reading and 
writing, was supported by his brother Thrasyvoulos Kamarados, literate 
businessman who had come from Russia. He (his brother) would edit every 
written document or article of study which then Neleus would publish.

Regarding his work on  tonal intervals see relevant article in  
"Parartema Ecclesiastikes Aletheias", issue 2, p. 11. The curious reader 
should read that to get insight into the subject.

The theoretical knowledge that he transmitted to his students was based 
on Kiltzanides' writing called "Guide". This writing, if published would 
possibly provide useful musicopaleographical material to the scientist 
musicians. However it got lost in 1915 from the desk of the teacher 
after a visit to Neleus' home by Stavros Brahamis who had come from 
Athens to Constantinople. Two years later than that date, it became 
known by some publications of K. Psaxos in Athens, that the Guide was in 
his possesion."

In his musical autobiography ("Mousikologika Apomnemoneumata") Boudouris 
writes about Kamarados:

$41 (p. 45)

"I had heard from many people that Neleus Kamarados, right chanter of 
the church of St Nicholas of Galata was an excellent musician and 
knowledgable on the theoretical aspect of our ecclesiastical music. So I 
went to the church and listened to him. After the service we met in the 
Epitropikon room with the aim to obtain information and answers related 
to my musical questions. I even hoped, if there was need to do so, to 
act as a writer in order to put down on paper the theoretical knowledge 
of Neleus. My impression from that discussion was that Neleus tried with 
great difficulty to show that he knew something about the theory in 
general of our music. In the end I was occupied with disappointment 
because after all those years that Neleus professed to be a teacher of 
ecclesiastical music, he wasn't capable to say even a couple of words 
about  his musical work".

In his "Protopsaltika" he adds:

$143 (p.212)

"The external psaltis Neleus Kamarados when he happened to attend the 
service at the Patriarchate and listened to Iakovos Nafpliotis chanting, 
he always used to approach him after the end of the service to tell him 
"I admire you for the way you chant the ecclesiastical mele" and the 
teacher of the Great Church would reply "If you spent as many years as I 
have spent chanting in this Church, then you would learn to chant like 
that too".

$145

In the second Patriarchal period of Joakeim the 3rd, Georgios 
Papadopoulos  took with him K. Psaxos and N. Kamarados and presented 
them to the Patriarch in order to allow them to chant his Polychronismos 
("Praise"). From that, Papadopoulos hoped to promote Kamarados for 
Protopsaltis of the Great Church and Psaxos for Labadarios. After the 
end of the Polychronismos, the Patriarch told them "Isn't the domestikos 
Iakovos (Nafpliotis) a teacher of your musical college? Why didn't you 
bring him with you?". The three good partners didn't know what to say 
("den iksevran pws na fygwsin").


$283 (p 252)

With every means possible, Papadopoulos achieved the support of the 
doctor Archigenes Pasha (of Greek roots). This doctor acted so that the 
Patriarch would allow Kamarados' choir to chant one Sunday at the 
Patriarchate. This was objected by the Patriarch, however he allowed 
Kamarados to chant with his choir in the private church (Parecclesion) 
of the Patriarch. On the arranged date, in the presence of the 
Patriarch, many bishops, Markos Vasileiou, Christos Papaioannou and 
other clergy and non-clergy staff, Neleus appeared with his helper 
psaltai and canonarchs who formed his choir. They started chanting with 
loud voices and screams ("me fwnas kai kraugas") to the degree that the 
bishops started leaving the Parecclesion disappointed before Neleus 
finished his work. After the end, the Patriarch ordered so that coffee 
was offered to the psaltai. After the departure of the psaltai the 
Patriarch said to his secretary Markos Vasileiou: "What is this mess? so 
is that how Neleus chants with his choir? Alas, indeed, alas.. " ("Ma ti 
xalia einai auta? Etsi loipon psallei o Nhleus me ton xoron tou? 
Aloimonon kai trisaloimonon!")