Intellectual Context

August Otto Halm's mature years, from age twenty-one in 1890 until his death in 1929, parallel the Wilhelmine and Weimar periods in Germany. The Wilhelmine era, with its transformative economic successes, erosive political stresses, and divisive cultural forces, incubated the national mind-set and events that led to World War I. Reactions to the failures of Wilhelmine Germany and the war produced the culturally dynamic yet politically restless Weimar Republic that ultimately led to World War II. The course of Halm's life and literary contributions reflect those rich yet troubling years. Further, many issues with which he grappled and came to terms have surfaced in recent times, reconceived and expanded, in familiar articles and books.

A talented musician, penetrating analyst, nationally renowned teacher and educationist, engaging writer and lecturer, Halm was called the “musical conscience” of the time. Even after 1945, leading figures in music still referred to him as a seminal author in music theory, aesthetics, and education. Yet in contrast to contemporaneous figures in music theory, no monograph exists on Halm. Books recently published on Hugo Riemann, Heinrich Schenker, and Arnold Schoenberg confirm abiding interest in those theorists. Our conception and understanding of their work has been transformed within the last few years by Alexander Rehding (Riemann), Nicholas Cook (Schenker), and Michael Cherlin and Ethan Haimo (Schoenberg). Additionally, following my publications of more than a decade ago on Ernst Kurth, two important book-length studies on his ideas have appeared, albeit in German.