[1] After graduating from Harvard, Leichtentritt studied in Paris (1894–5) and then at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin (1895–8), where he was taught by Joseph Joachim.

[1] After leaving Berlin University, Leichtentritt lectured in composition and music history at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory (1901–24).

[2] Leichtentritt mainly focused on musicology, producing many articles and books ranging from history and form to Chopin.

In a diary entry in 1897, he "heard seventy-five concerts, given mostly by world famous artists and organizations, and twenty-four operas, some of them given two or three times," to which "half a dozen ballets must be added" (Autobiography p. 121).

[1] Wary of growing antisemitism in Germany, Leichtentritt sent his resume to Harvard, Columbia, Juilliard, Curtis, and Chicago College of Music.

[1] He left Germany in 1933 before the main wave of emigration, and took with him more than twenty chests of books, a Steinway grand piano, and his savings, about $250 — roughly equivalent to $4,800 in modern USD (Autobiography p. 398).

[1] 1940: At the retirement age of 65, and without a stable position or income, Leichtentritt left the public eye, carrying out his scholarly work in Cambridge "at home, sustained by an innate optimism" (p. 514).

[2][6] At the University of Utah, his student Leroy Robertson transferred his papers to the Harvard Musical Association, which published his autobiography.

His works include a comic opera Die Sizilianer (1920), concertos, song cycles, piano and chamber music, and a symphony.

[2] String Quartet, Opus 1[18] Leichtentritt had numerous pupils during his time teaching in Berlin and at Harvard.

Leichtentritt's History of the Motet (1908) and his Musical Form Theory (1911) were considered standard works in Europe.

In the United States, Leichtentritt hoped to continue the success he had in Germany as a valued music critic and composer.

Leichtentritt's attempts to publish English translations of his well-known German books, the two volumes of the History of the Motet and his Musical Form Theory, failed initially.