Theodor Helm

Theodor Otto Helm (April 9, 1843 in Vienna – December 25, 1920 Vienna) was an Austrian music critic and writer.

Theodor Otto Helm was a leading figure in Viennese musical life and a prominent music critic in Vienna for fifty years (1866–1916). While Helm specialized in criticism of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Wilhelm Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, and Antonín Dvořák, he also wrote on younger composers including Béla Bartók and Gustav Mahler, and Arnold Schoenberg. Heavily involved in the Vienna music scene, including the Wiener Akademischer Wagner Verein, Helm counted both Bruckner and Brahms as close acquaintances.

Biography

In 1853 Theodor Helm began his studies at the Schotten Gymnasium der Benediktiner in Vienna. He eventually focused his efforts on studying law. Helm received his PhD in 1870. He taught as an instructor of the history of music and aesthetics at the Conservatory Horakschen beginning in 1874. In 1900 he was named professor.