Nikolai Bakhmetev


Nikolai Ivanovich Bakhmetev was a Russian soldier, composer, violinist and long-serving director of the Imperial Court Capella in Saint Petersburg.

Biography

Bakhmetev was born in 1807 in the Russian Empire. He served in the military before devoting himself to music. In 1861 he succeeded Alexei Lvov as director of the Imperial Court Capella. He remained in the position until 1883, overseeing repertoire, performance practice and the publication of official choral editions.

Works

Bakhmetev edited and published the two-volume Obikhod notnovo tserkovnovo peniya, which became the standard liturgical collection of the Imperial Court.
Under his supervision, three further volumes of sacred choral compositions were issued, and his editorial revisions of traditional chants had lasting influence on Russian Orthodox church music.

Controversy with Tchaikovsky

Bakhmetev is noted for a legal dispute with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and publisher Pyotr Jurgenson. Exercising censorship privileges historically granted to the Capella by Catherine the Great and previously used by Dmitry Bortniansky, he banned the performance of Tchaikovsky’s newly published Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom during services. The prohibition was overturned in court, establishing a precedent that allowed greater freedom in publishing sacred music in the Russian Empire.

Legacy

Lvov-Bakhmetev’s Obikhod became the most widely used “court” edition of its time and influenced later four-part choral arrangements. Iakov Tichai for example adapted it extensively for Orthodox services in Japan under St. Nicholas of Japan.
The term obikhod literally means “standard” or “common,” and Bakhmetev’s version set the template for Russian liturgical singing in the late 19th century.
Bakhmetev died in Saint Petersburg in 1891. His editorial work remains an important part of the Russian Orthodox choral tradition, and performances of his Obikhod continue to appear in modern church repertoire.

Literature