V. M. Metallov — priest, scholar, educationalist

This article presents the experience of working in the genre of scientific biography of an outstanding representative of Russian culture at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, priest Vasily Mikhailovich Metallov, who combined church service with scientific and pedagogical musical activity (to a lesser extent, composing).V.M. Metallov has come a long way from a provincial rural priest to the rector of the Kazan Church on Red Square in Moscow. Developing the talent of a research scientist, he achieved great results in the field of studying ancient Russian church music history, set forth in a number of fundamental works. In his extensive pedagogical activity, he sought to transfer his scientific knowledge to students of spiritual and secular educational institutions in Saratov and Moscow: the Saratov Theological Seminary, the Synodal School of Church Singing, the Moscow Conservatory of the Russian Musical Society, the Archaeological Institute.The central place in the secular ministry of V.M. Metallov was occupied by the Moscow Conservatory. In it, he continued the tradition of teaching the spiritual and musical training course «The History of Church Singing», the founder of which was Archpriest Dimitri Vasilyevich Razumovsky, and the successor Stepan Vasilyevich Smolensky. By his works and trying to preserve the presence of the spiritual and musical subject in the conditions of the reformation after 1917 of pre-revolutionary musical education at the Moscow Conservatory, V.M. In this way, he preserved the foundation, which in the future allowed the interest of musical researchers to revive in the national «monument» — the ancient Russian church music art.The article observes the chronological outline of the biography of V.M. Metallov, supplemented by a number of little-known details and documentary evidence discovered during the study of archival materials and documents.