Erstwhile opponents of a belief or practice, once ideologically converted, sometimes become its most ardent advocates, but only, or primarily, on the self-appointed terms of the conversion. Such was the case with Halm's initial opposition to music analysis and later full embrace of it as a path to deep understanding of, and appreciation for, music. More important, however, was his evolved belief that probing analysis, aimed at lay audiences in comprehensible form, was the key to sustaining music culture, to rescuing the Great Masters from misunderstanding and oversimplification by the public, and to combating degenerate, popular music journalism that to his mind falsified and consequently cheapened the very art it aimed to venerate and preserve. To achieve those goals, Halm spent roughly the last twenty-five years of his life teaching and lecturing about music with missionary zeal and writing four major books and more than one hundred essays directed at lay readers rather than career musicians and scholars. “My work addresses itself by no means exclusively or even primarily to professional musicians,” he explained on the first page of his first major book, “but rather aims to serve the need, awakening ever more today precisely outside of that narrower circle, for insight into the artistically essential aspects of music.” Musical understanding and appreciation had become something reserved for experts, he declared, “just as once religion was entrusted to the priests, until someone found the courage to proclaim the teachings of the priesthood.”