'August Halm: A Critical and Creative Life in Music' begins by setting the cultural stage and examining Halm's life with rich details from unpublished personal letters, diaries, notebooks, and lecture notes. Further chapters explore Halm's notion of musical logic and his proposal that the evolution of compositional technique had, by his day, culminated in three successive musical 'cultures' epitomized in Bach (fugue), Beethoven (sonata), and Bruckner (symphony). Another chapter examines, for the first time anywhere, Halm's own compositions, their motivating aesthetic premises, and their connection with late twentieth-century postmodernism. The volume closes with an assessment of Halm's significance for present-day music theory, including its branches that deal with narrativity, plot theory, embodiment, and semiotics. Halm's subject matter and creative activities ranged widely, and he aimed at maintaining a style that would be accessible and intriguing to music amateurs and music educators at all levels. Lee Rothfarb's book-written in the same spirit-will interest not only music theorists and musicologists but also composers and classroom and private music teachers. Lee Rothfarb is professor of music at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His previous publications include 'Ernst Kurth as Theorist and Analyst' and 'Ernst Kurth: Selected Writings'.

Offer[s] breadth and depth to the life and work of a figure . . . , in Adorno's words - disgracefully forgotten.[...] A very lucid volume, and an excellent digest and (in places) extension of [Rothfarb's previous] work on Halm.'

Nicholas Attfield Source: Music & Letters

[Halm] can be considered the musical conscience of his time. His writings . . . promote a philosophy of listening and of musical analysis. . . . Rothfarb leads his readers on a journey in masterful manner. . . . The physical production of the book is beyond reproach.'

Marc Rigaudière Source: Revue De Musicologie