Theodor Helm

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

Photo of Dr. Theodor Otto Helm, at approximately age fifty

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.

Photo of Dr. Theodor Otto Helm's business card

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.

Helm began his writing career in Vienna's Neues Fremdenblatt in 1867. He continued his essays and music criticisms in Musikalisches Wochenblatt, a Leipzig weekly, (1870-1905) and continued with the paper when subsumed by the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'.'

Helm's greatest work is arguably his 1885 "Beethovens Streichquartette: Versuch einer technischen Analyse dieser Werke im Zusammenhange mit ihren geistigen Gehalt" (Leipzig, 1885) . This analysis of Beethoven's string Quartets is considered seminal work and has been reprinted many times by publishers across the world.

He contributed freelance writings to Pestor Lloyd (a German newspaper issued in Budapest) and the Viennese Salonblatt and the Deutsche Zeitung" (1884-1901)

While initially critical of Bruckner's work, in 1883 Helm converted in his views and became one of Bruckner's strongest advocates, penning dozens of glowing reviews throughout the rest of Bruckner's life. (Jackson p. 63) Bruckner and Helm regularly corresponded between 1883 until Bruckner's death in 1896. Often Bruckner was seeking a favorable review from Helm in "Deutsche Zeitung," albeit second hand account, of a non-Vienna venue concert. On occasion Bruckner visited Helm at his home III. Rochusgasse 10 in Vienna to visit and go over his symphonic scores with Helm.

In 1902 Helm founded a three year Bruckner Celebration (Akademische Gesangverein) six years after the composer's death. However the well known annual Bruckner festival wasn't founded until 1929.

Ever the Viennese loyalist, Helm preferred Hans Richter and the lush string section of the Vienna Philharmonic over the "Prussian precision" of the Berlin Philharmonic. (McColl p. 49)

Helm attended the funerals ceremonies of Anton Bruckner (1896), Johannes Brahms (1897), and probably Johann Strauss II (1899), and Hugo Wolf (1903) all in Vienna. (Kalbeck ch. 10)

Helm not only appreciated fine composition and performances but also excellent acoustics. After the opening concert "Golden Hall" of the Musikverein (Grosse Musikvereinssaal) Helm commented on the impressive acoustics "This achievement, is partly a stroke of pure luck (unfortunately acoustics still cannot be precisely forecast or calculated), and on the other hand it is undeniably merited by the excellent architect Hansen..." (Austrian Festivals)

Aesthetic Objectivity

While many view Helm in the conservative German Nationalist camp, he was simultaneously regarded as one of the "most fair-minded and balanced Viennese critics" in Vienna. (Brodbeck) As Helm approached middle age, 'Deutsche Zeitung" was still a liberal paper. However in 1884 as the paper took a decidedly anti-Semitic turn, Helm was hired as the chief music critic for Deutsche Zeitung and attempted to maintain his critical objectivity in his writings against the politics of the editors. Over the subsequent decades, Deutsche Zeitung touted itself as a highly anti-semitic German nationalist newspaper.

Some criticized Helm for writing to pander to the political views of his audience and thus for writing contradictory reviews of a given performance. He was attacked in the press for being a "helmet without a head." Hugo Wolf retaliated to a critical review by calling Helm "an idiot." (Pleasants)

Other argued that Helm sought to not let the political bias of the management taint his writings. Theodor Helm's political comments seem "to be added almost reluctantly, even gratuitously, as if he were bowing to the wish of management." (McColl p. 107) His criticism of Brahms included comments deriding his liberal supporters more often than Brahms' works which Helm generally held in high regard.

"Helm declined to support the anti-Semitic politics that began to pose a serious threat to the Viennese Liberalism of the 1880s" (Jackson p. 65)

As further evidence of Helm's rejection of German Nationalistic bias, Helm collaborated with both the Jewish critic Hirshfeld and Slavic critic Lvovsky. (McColl p. 53)

Personal

Theodor Otto Helm was born April 9, 1843 in Vienna Austria. His parents Dr. Julius Helm (1813-1844) and Julie Freiin von Forstern had married a year earlier, in 1842. Theodor was their only child. Julius Helm died when Theodor was only one year old. His mother remarried Karl Müller (1813-1868), a prominent music critic from "nobility", who was largely responsible for introducing young Theodor to Vienna's musical events and salons. Theodor's mother died when he was 15, leaving Theodor in the care of Julius's uncle, Friedrich Drathschmidt, who was friends of Robert and Clara Schumann. (Schönherr)

Theodor Otto Helm married Irene Dorothea Müller (1844-1911) the daughter of his step father on June 1, 1869.

In 1870 Theodor and Irene Helm had their first child Julius. Tragically Theodor's wife Irene completely lost her hearing in 1870. It isn't clear if this was a complication related to childbirth. As a very young boy Julius studied violin under Johannes Brahms, who suspected that Julius was a musical genius. (Schönherr) Sadly, Julius died at the early age of five years and nine months.

In 1872 Theodor and Irene had a daughter Gabriela Mathide Helm. An accomplished pianist, she lived until 1945.

Photo of Theodor Helm and Daughter Mathilda in Salzburg, Austria around 1910

In 1875 Theodor and Irene Helm had a second son Theodor Ludwig Moritz Helm (1875-1963). Theodor Jr. attempted to emulate his father by publishing several critical essays on Anton Bruckner's music, but failing to follow his father's success while under the economic pressures of providing for his growing family, he later settled to work as a civil servant with the Postal Service. (Schönherr).

Theodor Otto Helm died of "old age" Dec. 25, 1920. He was buried Dec. 27, 1920 in the Zentralfriedhof cemetery in Vienna, the near the graves of his fellow critic Eduard Hanslick and the composers Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Goldmark, Wolf, Salieri and several Strausses.

Writings (selective list)

• ‘Beethovens letzte Quartette’, Tonhalle, i (1868)
• Beethovens Streichquartette: Versuch einer technischen Analyse dieser Werke im Zusammenhange mit ihren geistigen Gehalt (Leipzig, 1885, 3/1921/R)
• 50 Jahre Wiener Musikleben, 1916 (Autobiographie)
• Fünfzig Jahre Wiener Musikleben (1866–1916): Erinnerungen eines Musikkritikers, ed. M. Schönherr (Vienna, 1977)
• Krebs, Michael: Theodor Helm (1843-1920). Ein Musikschriftsteller im Umkreis von Anton Bruckner. - Diss. Univ. Wien 2000. 499 S. (maschinschr.) Ursprünglich Beamter in Wien, dann Kritiker bei verschiedenen Tages- und Wochen-Zeitunge

Sources

• Grove Dictionary of Music
• AEIOU Austrian cultural information system of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture
• International Who's who in Music and Musical Gazetteer:A Contemporary Biographical Dictionary and a Record of the World's Musical Activity (1918): By César Saerchinger
• Austrian Festivals:
• Music Criticism in Vienna, 1896-1897: Critically Moving Forms By Sandra McColl
• Bruckner Studies By Timothy L. Jackson, Paul Hawkshaw
• Dvořák’s Reception in Liberal Vienna: Language Ordinances, National Property, and the Rhetoric of Deutschtum by DAVID BRODBECK Journal of the American Musicological Society Spring 2007, Vol. 60, No. 1, Pages 71–132 (doi:10.1525/jams.2007.60.1.71)
• Helm, Theodor: Fünfzig Jahre Wiener Musikleben (1866-1916). Erinnerungen eines Musikkritikers. Hrsg. v. Max Schönherr. - Wien 1977. XXXIII, 341, 109 S. Darin das Schaffen Anton Bruckners.
• Krebs, Michael: Theodor Helm (1843-1920). Ein Musikschriftsteller im Umkreis von Anton Bruckner. - Diss. Univ. Wien 2000. 499 S. (maschinschr.) Ursprünglich Beamter in Wien, dann Kritiker bei verschiedenen Tages- und Wochen-Zeitungen
• Kalbeck, Max: Johannes Brahms. Volume 1, 4 Circulation, Berlin: Brahms German Society, 1921. Permalink:
• Mahler and his world / edited by Karen Painter Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2002.
• The music criticism of Hugo Wolf / translated, edited, and annotated by Henry Pleasants. New York : Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1978, c1979
• Anton Bruckner : a documentary biography (vol 1 and 2.)/ Crawford Howie. Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, c2002
• Hugo Wolf; a biography, Walker, Frank, New York, Knopf, 1952

See also

• Aesthetics of music