Sunday, April 14, 2019

What is a Serial Sound Story? (UPDATED 13 JUNE 2021)

What is a Serial Sound Story? Or S.S.S., or just sss?

It's actually all in the title. It's a story told through sound and song. But it's not a musical play, nor does it have a clear narrative, as it is completely instrumental with as little visual representation as possible. It is a story told purely through sound and sound alone; for the listener alone to interpret.  Just as the serial stories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were published in short pieces across periods of time, only to be collected, in edited form, at a later time.

The idea differs in that these are sounds, not words.  Those serial novels relied on words alone to tell their stories.  No images.  No one to read the story for you.  No physical directives.  Just the words and your interpretation of them.  An sss has a real, actual story behind it for me.  But because I have chosen the presentation that I have, a listener will certainly not hear my story recited back to them.  This is intentional.  I would like the listener to create their own.

Because a "serial story" is, by nature, in the works at all times, I have decided to start a classification system.  An sss can fall into one of three categories:

1)  OPEN FOR REVIEW AND EDITING: a listener is able to hear these recordings before the final touches are put on them (though major song structures will not change — we must not lose the plot, after all), access song info before it is completed, and possibly even get a slightly different variation of the story.  Please do keep in mind, dearest friend, there is not a current catalog for changing versions posted to currently open for editing sss archives.  The only way to be sure you know the intended "finished" version is to check if the archive you're currently reviewing is open for editing or not.  Cataloging slight variations is frankly too much work for me and this is supposed to be fun, dammit.

2)  OPEN FOR REVIEW ONLY: listeners are hearing the last intended versions of these sss archives.  These archives are considered finished.  There may be new, repurposed versions of these compositions applied to other contexts, but these are considered the definitive recordings of these compositions.

3)  CLOSED: this archive is not currently available for editing or review.  It may become open for review again at some point in the future.  [This happens when Andy is discouraged, which is unfortunately more common these days.  We're being as supportive as is required.]

To answer some questions no one asked. . .

The current existing sss archives are:

Archive #1 (review only) — the best ever. :
prelude.
the best ever.
conclusion.

Archive #2 (review only) — spectral projections. :
spectral projections.
"part three."
"sunset."
part seven.

Archive #3 (review only) — Anderson. :
Anderson.
"second wind. (for jamie)"
"brooke's theme."
"moira davidson."
"mike's song."
"snow fell. (for eas)"

Archive #4 (review only) — "the many sides of the tale.": chronicles of employment. :
"the record business."
"welcome to post-9.11"
"thoughts from iglowold."

Archive #5 (review only) — Philomath. :

Archive #6 (review only) — .Sialogea. :

Archive #7 (review only) — plurmb. :

Archive #8 (review only) — Return to Sialogea. :

Unsorted chapters (these projections are not part of any specific archive and could be considered as "storyboards" for the proper archives):

And yes: archives can intersect.  the best ever and spectral projections had similar endings, and so became related in their respective epilogues.  However, again, that is my version of the story.  Maybe a different listener will have them intersect at another point.  The are, however, related.

Thank you.

~Andy