"Album Books with Dances and Marches" 1924-1928

Album Books 1, 2, 3 and four untitled, unnumbered Books

In spite of his announcement in the "Final Text" of 1922, Wölfli did not stop writing and composing; he only changed the design and the manner of illustrating the following eight Books.

“The Album Books” have a consistently horizontal format and are thinner and easier to handle than the “Books with Songs and Dances.” The old continuous numbering of the Books comes to a halt; only a few of the Books get a title.

All eight Books contain musical compositions, again noted in solfège; they are dated from 1924 and 1925. (There are no preserved texts from 1923, 1926, and 1927.) Fewer and fewer "geographic texts" are inserted between the musical compositions. The narrative texts are increasingly reduced, so that key terms substitute for the expanded storytelling found in the earlier work. Wölfli refers to these key terms by name or nickname in the progression of the songs: "Blast, 7. Ring, 707. Ludmilla, 7. Female Teacher, 745. Land-grant, 711. Daily work, 6. Beg-a-Bed, 339. Miss Wagner, 233. Madrid, 111. Aetna, 84. St. Adolf-Child, 61. Song Frrrt."

The dances and marches are ordered according to the "Ring" numbers, which are combined with a long series of continuosly numbered names: "Blast, 7. Ring, 707. Ludmilla, 7. Female Teacher, 745." A musical composition recorded in solfège follows, and the number of the next song progresses with each word, song after song: "Blast, 8. Ring, 708. Ludmilla, 8. Female Teacher 746." All but the "Ring" numbers of each successive song vary or disappear, but the "Rings" can be counted on to provide the actual sequence of the songs. In the course of the enumeration some single words can be repeated up to a thousand times; others are repeated only 10, 30, or 50 times before they finish their cycle and are superseded by new words, with which the count begins anew.