Marianne Helms

Marianne Helms was born Marianne Henze in Berlin on 3 July 1936. From 1955 she studied musicology, covering both historical musicology and ethnomusicology, alongside medieval and modern history at the Free University of Berlin. In 1964 she received her doctorate there for a study of the masses of the fifteenth century Franco-Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem. It was published in 1968 as Studien zu den Messenkompositionen Johannes Ockeghems in the series Berliner Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, under the name Henze. From 1965 to 1967 she worked as a research assistant at the university's musicology institute.

In autumn 1967 Helms joined the Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Institut in Gottingen as a research associate, working there until 1978 on the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. Her volumes included the cantatas for the Feast of Saint Michael (score 1973, critical report 1974), the cantatas for Epiphany up to the second Sunday after Epiphany (1975 and 1976) and, with Emil Platen, the Lutheran masses and individual mass movements (1978 and 1982). In 1979 she worked at the Beethoven-Archiv in Bonn.

From 1980 she belonged to the Joseph Haydn-Institut in Cologne, as a researcher and archivist and, from July 1997 to the end of 1998, as academic director. For the complete edition Joseph Haydn Werke she edited the songs for voice and piano (1983), the various songs with piano (1988), the Stabat Mater of 1767 with Fred Stoltzfus (1993), the masses nos. 3 and 4, the Great Organ Mass and Nicolai Mass, with James Dack (1999), and two volumes of miscellaneous church music (2017, and 2018 with Andreas Friesenhagen). For G. Henle Verlag she prepared Urtext practical editions of Haydn's songs, the cantata Arianna a Naxos and two duets for soprano and tenor.

Her articles included studies of the second set of Haydn's 24 German songs, of his Te Deum Hob. XXIIIc.2, and of a Te Deum attributed to both Joseph and Michael Haydn, as well as the core entries on church music and songs in the Haydn-Lexikon (2010).

In 1966 she married the musicologist and music educator Siegmund Helms, who later became a professor at the Cologne University of Music. Together they edited the Venuskranzlein and Studentenschmaus of Johann Hermann Schein for that composer's collected works in 1970. They remained married until his death in June 2025.

Marianne Helms died on 17 October 2026 at the age of 90. Her death was announced in a family notice published in the Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger on 24 October 2026. The place and cause of death have not been made public.

Her critical editions remain part of the standard scholarly texts of Bach's vocal works and of Haydn's songs and church music, used by performers, editors and researchers. Her work on the Haydn church music, much of it completed in retirement, helped establish the texts of pieces whose authorship and sources had long been uncertain.