[1] He was a student of Joseph Marx at the Vienna Academy of Music, then of Franz Schreker at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, but later became increasingly culturally conservative.
As a composer, he followed the safe footpath of Max Reger, Hans Pfitzner, and Paul Graener; he wrote a symphonic poem, Der Dom (1934); Rhapsodie über ein schwedisches Volkslied (1939); Lustspiel-Ouvertüre (1942); lieder; and film music.
Under contract to UFA he composed music for many films during the National Socialist period.
[4][5] After World War II Melichar became increasingly polemic in his attacks on modernist music.
His pamphlets include Die unteilbare Musik ("Indivisible music" 1952), Musik in der Zwangsjacke ("Music in the Straitjacket" 1958), and Schönberg und die Folgen ("Schoenberg and his Consequences" 1960).