Nikolay Bakhmetev

Nikolai Ivanovich Bakhmetev (, scientific transliteration: Nikolaj Ivanovič Bachmetev; 1807–1891) 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 (Common Book of Musical Church Singing, 1869–1879), 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.

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 (обиход) 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.