Helmut Barbe

{{Short description|German composer (1927–2021)}}

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Helmut Barbe (28 December 1927, Halle (Saale) – 18 April 2021, Berlin) was a German composer.{{cite web |title=Helmut Barbe death notice|url=https://trauer.tagesspiegel.de/traueranzeige/helmut-barbe |newspaper=Tagesspiegel|access-date=16 October 2021}}

Barbe studied at the {{Interlanguage link|Berlin School of Church Music|de|Berliner Kirchenmusikschule im Johannesstift}} where he was taught by Gottfried Grote and Ernst Pepping. Between 1952 and 1975 he was the cantor at the church {{Interlanguage link|St. Nikolai, Spandau|de|3=St. Nikolai (Spandau)|lt=St. Nikolai}} in Berlin's Spandau quarter. After this, he took a post as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts in what was at that time West Berlin.

In 1956 Barbe premiered his musical Hallelujah, Billy{{cite web|url=http://www.theater-am-lindenhofe.de/HallelujaBilly.pdf |title=Halleluja, Billy Ein christliches Musical in 5 Akten von Ernst Lange, mit Songs von Helmut Barbe. Textliche Bearbeitung: Klaus Stolzmann |author=Ernst Lange|author-link=:de:Ernst Lange (Theologe)|date= |access-date=3 June 2015 |publisher=Theater am Lindenhofe, Hannover}}{{dead link|date=March 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} at the German Evangelical Church Assembly in Frankfurt am Main. This led commentators to identify him as a pioneer of contemporary worship music, in German Neues Geistliches Lied (NGL, literally: new spiritual song).{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iXwW-GDrtE0C&dq=Neue+Geistliches+Lied+%22Helmut+Barbe%22+Halle&pg=PA54|author=René Frank|chapter=Adaption von Gospelgesängen|title=Das neue geistliche Lied: neue Impulse für die Kirchenmusik|date=2003|publisher={{ill|Tectum Verlag|de}}|location=Marburg|isbn=978-3-8288-8573-8|page=54}}