This final installment of the organ compositions of Axel Ruoff (born in Stuttgart in 1957) presents two starkly contrasted sides of his musical personality: three of them, for voice and organ, are concerned with the spiritual – two even addressing head-on the issue of death itself – and are thus solemn and hieratic, whereas the concluding work is a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek set of variations on ‘Happy Birthday’, written as a present for Ruoff’s publisher on his 80th birthday.TracksMemento creatoris tui for baritone and organ (2001) (12:43)Messe basse for soprano and organ (2015) (21:15)I. Introitus (6:02)II. Kyrie (5:46)III. Sanctus (2:40)IV. Agnus Dei (6:47)In Hora Mortis. Sieben Totenlieder for medium voice and organ (2020) (28:31)No. 1, O bleibe treu den Toten (Storm) (7:31)No. 2, Lied der Toten (Werfel) (2:35)No. 3, O Herr, gib jedem seinen eignen Tod (Rilke) (3:55)No. 4, Vergiss mein nicht (von Knebel?, arttrib. Novalis) (3:39)No. 5, Ausgang (Fontane) (1:18)No. 6, Tiefstille (from Psalm 39, transl. Buber) (6:06)No. 7, Selig sind die Toten (Revelation 14:13)Happy Birthday. Variationen und Fuga grottesca (2019) (16:02)Thema (0:58)Var. 1: Ländler (1:45)Var. 2: Danse populaire (0:27)Var. 3: Marsch (2:26)Var. 4: Andante (0:48)Var. 5: Choral (1:02)Var. 6: Walzer (1:20)Var. 7: Galopp (0:44)Var. 8: Interludium (0:43)Var. 9: Polka (0:32)Var. 10: Grave (1:07)Fuga grottesca (4:10)Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by Uber. @CMDHedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber#AppleClassical Please consider supporting our show, thank you!Donate (classicalmusicdiscoveries.store) [email protected] This album is broadcast with the permission of Crossover Media Music Promotion (Zachary Swanson and Amanda Bloom).