HALLER, MICHAEL. — Composer and theorist, b. at Neusath on 13 January 1840, d. at Ratisbona on 4 January 1915. Having entered the Seminary of that city, he was ordained a priest there in 1864; he subsequently perfected his study of music, begun earlier at the monastery of Metten. He then became professor of counterpoint and composition at the school of Ratisbona.
He wrote a great deal of sacred music, including Masses for from 2 to 8 voices, which achieved great success on account of the purity of their polyphonic style and the harmony of their parts. Other sacred and secular pieces carried his fame beyond the strictly ecclesiastical sphere. He also wrote a Treatise on Sacred Musical Composition (Italian trans., Turin 1884), a Vademecum für den Gesangsunterricht, and other monographs on the modulation of sacred chant, which enjoyed wide circulation and authority.