Nikolai Bakhmetev (1807-1891)

BAKHMETEV, Nikolai Ivanovich (b. 1807, the estate Bakhmetevka, in today’s Atkarsk region of the Saratov district; d. 31 August [12 September] 1891, St. Petersburg) — a major-general by rank and an amateur violinist, from 1842–61 Bakhmetev maintained a chorus and orchestra of serfs at his estate. From 1861 to 1883 served as the Director of the Imperial Court Chapel; supervised an edition of the Obikhod notnovo tserkovnovo peniya [The common book of musical church singing] (2 vols., 1869–1879), making minor changes to the version of A. F. Lvov. (The editorial work mostly consisted of doubling the chant melody in the ﬁrst bass part, which results in acoustically crude triads in the men’s parts.) Bakhmetev’s tenure was marked by a particular conservatism in the ﬁeld of church-musical repertoire, until 1879, when the censorship powers of the Imperial Court Chapel’s Director were curtailed by a suit brought against Bakhmetev by the ﬁrm of P. Jurgenson in connection with B.’s attempt to forbid the publication of Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy. Bakhmetev’s own few sacred works are of little interest.