Friedhelm Döhl’s Organ Mass was composed from 1980 - 2005. It reflects the different stages of its conception, as well as the common ground. Right from the start the composer was aware that the liturgical stations of an Organ Mass can only be comprehended as ‘fragments’ in the labyrinth of our worldly existence, as he wrote in the programme notes for the Donaueschingen Music Festival 1980:
“When viewed under the magnifying glass of compositional solutions, the fragment becomes a labyrinth. The labyrinth of our existence is only comprehensible as a fragment…”
"Döhls music represents a central aesthetic position of new art. To him, composing is asking questions of his 'self', music is a medium which he uses in his dealings with a world, whose brokenness and fragility is to be brought to light through art… The partial frugality of the angular contours, repetitive rhythms and glaring contrasts have a direct correlation to highly expressive cantability and dionysistic sound sensuality." Wilfried Gruhn, in 'Metzlers Composers Lexicon'
