[2] Salmenhaara then studied musicology, aesthetics and theoretical philosophy at the University of Helsinki,[2] and earned his PhD in 1970 with a doctoral thesis about the works of the composer Ligeti.

[3] He served as lecturer (1966–1975) and associate professor (1975–2002) of musicology at the University of Helsinki and was also the leading writer on classical music in Finland.

[5] Beginning in the 1970s, Salmenhaara's works began to be characterized by frequent repetition of triadic motives with gradual changes in harmony.

Salmenhaara's published writings include a textbook on music theory, a history of 20th-century music, monographs on Ligeti, Jean Sibelius's Tapiola and the Brahms symphonies, biographies of Jean Sibelius and Leevi Madetoja, and a history of the Society of Finnish Composers.

[3] His most significant literary work was his contribution to a four-volume history of Finnish music (published in 1995–1996), writing about the period from the Romantic era to the Second World War.