Theodor Helm

While Helm specialized in criticism of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, and Antonín Dvořák, he also wrote on younger composers including Béla Bartók, Gustav Mahler, and Arnold Schoenberg.

Heavily involved in the Vienna music scene, including the Wiener Akademischer Wagner Verein, Helm counted both Bruckner and Brahms as close acquaintances.

He taught as an instructor of the history of music and aesthetics at the conservatory of Eduard Horak [de] since beginning in 1874.

Helm's greatest work is arguably his 1885 Beethovens Streichquartette: Versuch einer technischen Analyse dieser Werke im Zusammenhange mit ihren geistigen Gehalt (Leipzig, 1885).

This analysis of Beethoven's string quartets is considered seminal work and has been reprinted many times by publishers across the world.

Often Bruckner was seeking a favorable review from Helm in Deutsche Zeitung, albeit second hand account, of a non-Vienna venue concert.

After the opening concert in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein (Grosse Musikvereinssaal), Helm commented on the impressive acoustics: "This achievement, is partly a stroke of pure luck (unfortunately acoustics still cannot be precisely forecast or calculated), and on the other hand it is undeniably merited by the excellent architect Hansen..."[5] While many view Helm in the conservative German nationalist camp, he was simultaneously regarded as one of the "most fair-minded and balanced Viennese critics" in Vienna.

The elder Müller was largely responsible for introducing young Theodor to Vienna's musical events and salons.

Theodor Jr. attempted to emulate his father by publishing several critical essays on Anton Bruckner's music, but failing to follow his father's success while under the economic pressures of providing for his growing family, he later settled to work as a civil servant with the Postal Service.

He was buried on 27 December 1920 in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, near the graves of his fellow critic Eduard Hanslick and the composers Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Goldmark, Wolf, Salieri and several members of the Strauss family.