Theodor Helm

Photo of Theodor Helm, at approximately age fifty

Theodor Otto Helm (born April 9, 1843 in Vienna; Died Dec. 25, 1920, Vienna) Austrian Music Critic and Writer.

Theodor Otto Helm was a leading figure in Viennese musical life and a prominent music critic in Vienna. 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. Heavily involved in the Vienna music scene he counted both Bruckner and Brahms as close friends.

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 was instructor of the history of music and aesthetics, and began teaching at the Conservatory Horakschen 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'.'

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 Brucker's work, in 1883 Helm converted and became one of Bruckner's strongest advocates, penning dozens of glowing reviews throughout the rest of Bruckner's life. (Jackson p.63)

Aesthetic Objectivity

Helm was regarded as one of the "most fair-minded and balanced Viennese critics" in Vienna. (Brodbeck) While approaching middle age, Helm keenly remembered when 'Deutsche Zeitung" was still a liberal paper. However as the the paper took a decidedly anti-Semitic turn, Helm was hired in 1884 as the chief music critic for 'Deutsche Zeitung" and attempted to maintain his critical objectivity in his writings against the politics of the editors. Although Deutsche Zeitung" touted itself as a highly anti-semitic German nationalist newspaper,

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) Helm sought to not let the political bias of the management taint his writings.

Nevertheless, as Chief Music Critic he did report on the annual Wagnerian Bayreuth Festival which, later in the 20th century, provided the German Nationalist music revered by the Nazis.

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

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 Richard Strauss (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)

Personal

Theodor Otto Helm was born April 9, 1843 in Vienna Austria. His parents Dr. Julius Helm (1823-1844) and Julie Freiin von Fostern had married a year earlier, in 1842. Theodor was their only child.

Theodor Otto Helm married Irene Dorothea Muller also from Vienna 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.

In 1875 Theodor and Irene Helm had a second son Theodor Ludwig Moritz Helm (1875-1963). He attempted to emulate his father by publishing several critical essays on Anton Bruckner's music, but failing to follow his father's success, 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, Shubert, 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[1]
AEIOU Austrian cultural information system of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture [2]
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[3]
Austrian Festivals: [4]
Music Criticism in Vienna, 1896-1897: Critically Moving Forms By Sandra McColl [5]
Bruckner Studies By Timothy L. Jackson, Paul Hawkshaw [6]
Dvorˇák’s Reception in Liberal Vienna: Language Ordinances, National Property, and the Rhetoric of Deutschtum by DAVID BRODBECK [7] 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: [8]

See also

• Aesthetics of music