With the "12 Sonate da chiesa" (12 Church Sonatas), Robert M. Helmschrott presents a central work of his oeuvre, composed between 1984 and 1994. The cycle is far more than a homage to a historical genre: it is an artistic affirmation of the spiritual power of music and its ability to connect eras, cultures, and religions.
The traditional term "Sonata da chiesa" refers to the Baroque church sonata of the 17th and 18th centuries. Helmschrott deliberately adopts this designation—not as a historicist gesture, but as a point of departure for a creative engagement with music history. The movement titles—ranging from Alleluja, Psalmos, Antifona and Jubilus to Nomos, Hymnos, Elegie to Motetus or Aria —open a wide horizon: from Jewish Old Testament chant through Greco-Roman antiquity and the Christian Middle Ages to the early modern era. The Mediterranean cultural sphere forms the intellectual framework of the cycle.
Helmschrott understands “religious music” not as confined to a single confession, but as the expression of a humanistic vision. Jewish, Christian, and—implicitly—Islamic traditions are interwoven in a spirit of compassion and dialogue. Music thus becomes a space of understanding, sustained by reason, openness, and faith in the unifying power of love.
Formally, all twelve sonatas follow the two-part slow–fast structure characteristic of the later Baroque church sonata. The slow movements unfold meditative, contemplative soundscapes; the fast finales range from rhythmic vitality to jubilant ecstasy. A concertante dialogue between organ and various melodic instruments shapes the musical character: sharply contrasted passages, intimate exchanges, asymmetrical constellations, and at times the expressive monologue of a single instrument create a richly varied dramaturgy.
The architecture of the cycle follows a symbolic order. The number twelve—the product of the “perfect” numbers three and four—has played a central role in cultural history, from myth and mysticism to dodecaphony. Accordingly, the sonatas are arranged in four groups of three, each comprising two duos and a concluding trio; the final Sonata XII expands the instrumentation to seven performers, forming the sonic culmination of the cycle.
The tonal foundation is Helmschrott’s self-developed “Modus H,” an eight-note scale reminiscent of Olivier Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition, yet conceived independently. By combining elements of ancient church modes, the major–minor system, chromatic totality, and serial thinking, Helmschrott creates a language of remarkable color and depth: dense, dissonant harmonies and clusters stand alongside luminous consonant sonorities. Despite this diversity, the musical language remains cohesive and organic—every melodic and harmonic gesture is constructively interrelated.
In Sonata XII, Helmschrott makes a conscious statement by incorporating passages from Orlando di Lasso’s motet Timor et tremor. This quotation is not nostalgic, but structurally and spiritually grounded: the minor third, central to both Lasso’s chromatic writing and Helmschrott’s “Modus H,” forms the connecting link between Renaissance and present day. From the existential “fear and trembling” of the first movement, the music progresses toward a declarative "Non confundar" in radiant fortissimo—a sonic sign of trust and hope.
Robert M. Helmschrott (*1938), an award-winning composer, founder of the “Erdinger Orgelwoche” and the Munich concert series “Musica Sacra Viva,” and former President of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, regards the "12 Sonate da chiesa" as a summa of his artistic vision: rooted in tradition yet unmistakably contemporary, spiritually grounded yet dialogical in outlook, rigorously constructed and charged with expressive immediacy.
This album invites listeners to rediscover sacred music as a living presence—an echo of millennia of cultural memory and a resonant vision of unity in diversity.