HALLER, MICHAEL. - Composer and theorist, b. at Neustath on 13 Jan. 1840, d. at Ratisbon on 4 Jan. 1915. After entering the seminary of that city, he was ordained priest in 1864; he then perfected his musical studies, which he had previously begun at the monastery of Metten. He subsequently became professor of counterpoint and composition at the school in Ratisbon.
He composed much sacred music, including masses for two to eight voices which achieved great success for the purity of their polyphonic style and the harmony of their parts. Other sacred and secular pieces extended his fame beyond the strictly ecclesiastical sphere. He also wrote a Trattato di composizione musicale sacra (Italian trans., Turin 1884), a Vademecum für den Gesangsunterricht, and other monographs on the modulation of sacred chant which enjoyed wide circulation and authority.