Dan Albertson

Dan Albertson has written for La Folia since 2004. His pursuits involve languages, lexicography, music, musicology, poetry, and translation, and tend to veer away from mainstream artists. He has worked on the Living Composers Project since 2000, has written articles for MusikTexte, has contributed entries to the encyclopedia Komponisten der Gegenwart, and has edited multiple volumes of the British journal Contemporary Music Review, on the composers Helmut Lachenmann, Earle Brown and Aldo Clementi, plus two volumes on modernism and the string quartet and a co-edited volume on Spanish music beyond Spanish borders. He has been a member of its editorial board since 2014. He translates notes for Cybele Records in Düsseldorf and has contributed his own notes to a variety of international labels. His poems are generally short and static in nature. American by birth, he is now based abroad.

Clear Once, Over and Out

In memoriam Clarence Barlow, 1945–2023.

Clear Once, Over and Out

In memoriam Clarence Barlow, 1945–2023.

Counting the Vagaries

Currents headed eastward… An email from a librarian…

Counting the Vagaries

Currents headed eastward… An email from a librarian…

Partly Present

Festivals inevitably vary in content, purpose and reliability.

Partly Present

Festivals inevitably vary in content, purpose and reliability.

Constructing Absurdities and Monstrosities: Mikel Urquiza

Mikel Urquiza backs down from no challenge.

Constructing Absurdities and Monstrosities: Mikel Urquiza

Mikel Urquiza backs down from no challenge.

Chanting Iron: Volker Heyn

Among the German composers toiling away in the penumbra of the few mainstream names, Volker Heyn stands apart for his uncompromising streak, his independence from the Neue Muzak circle and his aesthetic positions.

Chanting Iron: Volker Heyn

Among the German composers toiling away in the penumbra of the few mainstream names, Volker Heyn stands apart for his uncompromising streak, his independence from the Neue Muzak circle and his aesthetic positions.

Chiaroscuro

Walt is gone. In his absence, and with me hearing him telling me to get on with it, I would rather spotlight some of what he treasured.

Chiaroscuro

Walt is gone. In his absence, and with me hearing him telling me to get on with it, I would rather spotlight some of what he treasured.

Collecting Is Forgetting

Is the zeal of a music collector, if one traces it to its roots, fundamentally any different in nature from the man who assembles his birds, books, coins, stamps, trains, or watches?

Collecting Is Forgetting

Is the zeal of a music collector, if one traces it to its roots, fundamentally any different in nature from the man who assembles his birds, books, coins, stamps, trains, or watches?

Of Infertile Soil

This essay is my reply to the various people over the years who have asked me to write about American composers and American music.

Of Infertile Soil

This essay is my reply to the various people over the years who have asked me to write about American composers and American music.

A Catalogue of Darknesses, Part 2.

Music as a balm, laced with much more than the weight of its usual essence, is a lethal weapon.

A Catalogue of Darknesses, Part 2.

Music as a balm, laced with much more than the weight of its usual essence, is a lethal weapon.

Snapshots: Of Crystal

I had tuned into this concert to hear the Seventh Symphony of Mahler… but of course sat through the opener.

Snapshots: Of Crystal

I had tuned into this concert to hear the Seventh Symphony of Mahler… but of course sat through the opener.

A Catalogue of Darknesses, Part 1.

What better way to greet a new year, or indeed any year, month, week, or day, than to obsess over works of melancholy?

A Catalogue of Darknesses, Part 1.

What better way to greet a new year, or indeed any year, month, week, or day, than to obsess over works of melancholy?

Homo PoMo

Clementi and Silvestrov represent the late 20th century in its Janus-visaged splendor, two chiselers making the most of a ravaged and desolate toolkit – disparate fellow travelers.

Homo PoMo

Clementi and Silvestrov represent the late 20th century in its Janus-visaged splendor, two chiselers making the most of a ravaged and desolate toolkit – disparate fellow travelers.