#sandtember2023

[sandmanweek]

Sandtember Week 2023

Welcome back to our second year of prompts. Remember, they don't have to be about ships, and they can be art, fics, moodboards, or medium you like to use for your inspiration! This year, the prompts are each inspired the six other Endless siblings, with the last day being for Dream, as that is World Dream Day

Sept 19th: (Destiny) - What could have been/Alternate Universe Sept 20th: (Death) - The end of something/Platonic love Sept 21st: (Desire) - Romantic relationship/Jealousy Sept 22nd: (Despair) - The worst thing happens/Misery Sept 23rd: (Destruction) - Breaking free/Inevitability Sept 24th: (Delirium) - Loss of identity or control/Crack Sept 25th: (Dream) - Best outcome/Hope

Please Remember to not share your fanfiction with Neil Gaiman

Excited to see what we get this year, hoping we have more people join in! Remember to tag so that we can find what you make, as we will be going through the tags over the week. Tags: SandmanWeek2023, Sandtember2023, SandWeek2023.

#dream of the endless #the sandman #morpheus #the sandman comics #netflix sandman #the sandman fanart #the sandman fanfiction #sandmanweek2023 #sandtember2023 #sandweek2023

[writing-for-life]

“Oblivion Is Not An Option”—A Musical Meta About Death’s “A Kind Word And A Friendly Face”

Send me asks about everything Sandman-related!

As some of you already know, my past life as a musician gives me a deep love for, and interest in, film music.

I already wrote a meta about the musical themes of Morpheus and Johanna Constantine, which you can find here.

In the spirit of actually creating the content we’d like to see, and also inspired by Sandtember Week 2023 prompt (Death) - The end of something, I’d like to talk about the musical leitmotif of Death today. And by the way, if you’d like me to cover any of the other Sandman musical themes: My ask box is always open (also for non-music related Sandman stuff. I’ve been sitting with this story for 30 years now, and I love to nerd out about it). I can’t promise how quickly I will be able to turn around these things since they need a bit of work and thought, but I definitely will get back to you.

First of all, let me start by saying that there are only four characters with a leitmotif (not every Sandman character has one) that doesn’t mirror, or even contain, Dream’s theme in some way:

Ethel Cripps

Hob Gadling

The Corinthian (video is time-stamped, which doesn’t always work on mobile. In that case, scroll to 0:55)

Death

Or

Johanna’s and Calliope’s motifs are interesting in this context. I won’t go into Johanna’s again here, you can read about it via the link.

Calliope’s motif sounds different from Dream’s at first listen, so we might be tempted to put her in above group. But on closer listen, Calliope’s theme, like Johanna’s, references Dream’s (at the very end, it starts at 1:26). One step further: It is actually his motif (somewhat) in reverse. Which is really heartbreaking if you think of it, because it mirrors both their connection and deep affinity, but also a pull into different directions. However, I might write more about this another time, since this one is obviously about Death.

Affective Tonality—Musical Keys Make Us Feel

“A Kind Word and a Friendly Face” is set in the key of a minor. In affective tonality, a minor is the key of softness and tenderness of character (if this is something that interests you, have a look at Schubart’s or Charpentier’s works on the matter), but also of sadness and melancholy (Charpentier calls it “plaintive”). It’s more difficult to make an affective tonality assessment for Dream, since his leitmotif changes key several times throughout the series, depending on whom he interacts with (it also changes slightly overall, depending on context). For this purpose, the main theme (“The Kingdom of Dreams”) would probably be the best to use for comparison. It is set in B major, about which Schubart writes, “(it is) strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, (...) despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere”, while Charpentier calls it “solitary and melancholic”. I think you couldn’t give a more accurate description of character of these two via tonality if you tried.

Sound Effects That Hint At Deeper Meaning

Another aspect of Death’s theme I’d like to draw your attention to is the use of what we call backmasking. I recommend you listen to the beginning of “A Kind Word and a Friendly Face” at above video link with your headphones on. You will hear a faint sound effect in the background that is actually achieved by playing sounds in reverse. I was fairly sure it was her own leitmotif, but just to make sure I’m not telling you rubbish, I actually sent it through my sound processor, and it’s eerie how Death’s motif sounds almost the same played normally and in reverse (only that the background “noise” becomes the melody when you play it backwards). I think this is a wonderful, skilled musical hint at the interwoven nature of life and death: The moment you are born, you are essentially on a journey to die. But “oblivion is not an option”—there is a reversing of time in using this effect, an ethereal quality that is also mirrored in other aspects of the tune, e.g. in using flageolet in the string section. You create this effect by not fully pressing your finger down on the string, hence creating harmonics of the fundamental (the “original note”, so to speak). One could almost say it’s the sound of the cosmos: There is a long tradition, going back to Ancient Greece, to connect the relationships between musical notes and harmonic ratios to the universe (and ultimately life). All life is regarded as iterations of what could be called “cosmic music”. This isn’t really as woo as it might sound, but it would lead much too far in a meta like this. If you’re interested, you can make a start here:

Or a bit more in depth…

Melody Lines And Cadences Are Seldom Chosen At Random

Last but not least, I’d like to draw attention to the actual melody line. Despite being set in a minor key (which tends to evoke sadness in many listeners of western music), we have a hook largely based around an ascending pattern: 1-2-(m)3-1-(7)-1-1 (you can hear this right at the beginning of the video in linked above).

Compare this to Dream, who is mostly based around descending patterns: 1-(7)-(6)-(5)-(4) (I already explained this a bit more in-depth in the meta about Johanna).

As you can see, it’s not just the choice of key, it’s also the directionality. One lifts regularly and is inherently hopeful, the other descends quite frequently. However, people perceive music very differently, so this is rather food for thought than exact science.

I’d like to end this post with an interrupted cadence, just like Death’s motif:

When a piece of music ends, we want to hear a resolution. Usually, this means that we go back to the tonic (I) in some way, either via a perfect (V—I) or plagal (IV—I) cadence. It just sounds like a song is “done” or finished. In Death’s case, this would mean returning to the chord of a minor. However, we finish in F major, which leaves us hanging on the VI. It’s what’s called an interrupted cadence: There is no resolution, no end. And perhaps, that’s what Death hints at when she tells Harry now he’ll find out (video is time-stamped at around 1:28)…

#sandman meta #the sandman #death of the endless #the sandman meta #neil gaiman #the sandman analysis #musical meta analysis #sandman soundtrack #sandman netflix #dream of the endless #morpheus #calliope #SandmanWeek2023 #sandweek2023 #sandtember2023 #sandman #netflix the sandman #the sandman netflix #sandman music #sandmancentral

[despairoftheendless]

Sandtober2023 - Gold

#Im late but idc #the sandman #desire of the endless #sandtember2023 #the sandman netflix #the sandman 2022 #dessy gifs #dessy edits

[ladyaponoia]

Sandtember Week 2023 - Sept 22nd: (Despair) - The worst thing happens/Misery

An ode to the death of Despair the first and a homage to Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan by Ilya Repin

#SandWeek2023 #SandmanWeek2023 #Sandtember2023 #desire of the endless #despair of the endless #the sandman #netflix the sandman #the sandman 2022 #the sandman netflix #fan art tag

[sandmanweek]

We are back again!

Releasing the prompts on the first of August, the dates for posting your finished content are: 19th - 25th. They are strange days, seeing as World Dream Day falls on a Monday and prompts begin on a Tuesday, but who cares!

We hope everyone is excited for this week, and that we have more people joining. Hopefully, with this next round, we have more traction and interest. When the prompts come out, if interested please reblog to pass the word around!

#dream of the endless #the sandman #morpheus #sandmanweek2023 #sandtember2023 #sandmanweek #netflix sandman #the sandman comics #the sandman fanfiction #the sandman fanart

[sandmanweek]

With this prompt week coming to a close, the lack of people participating is disappointing. We are noticing the lack of awareness of Sandman week, even after a year of it circulating. We’ve only had two posts tagged this year, and it’s disheartening for us and the blog. It makes us wonder if we should continue.

If we do decide to stop the prompts, we will leave the blog up for people who wish to use our prompts later in the future for their own pleasure.

Edit: three people have participated. There is a fanfic, however as it was not tagged we did not see until searched up on Ao3. Please remember to have tagged your works if you have participated so that we can reblog them here as a collection of works.

#the sandman #dream of the endless #morpheus #the sandman comics #netflix the sandman #netflix sandman #sandtember2023 #sandmanweek2023 #the sandman fanart #the sandman fanfiction

[sandmanweek]

Reminder to please tag your works so that we can reblog them to our blog. The tags are in the pinned post along with the prompts.

#dream of the endless #the sandman #morpheus #the sandman comics #netflix sandman #the sandman fanart #the sandman fanfiction #sandmanweek2023 #sandtember2023

[sandmanweek]

Hope everyone who is participating is ready and raring to go! We are super excited to see what everyone has created for Sandtember week.

If you are not aware of the week, check out our pinned post, there is still some time to prepare something (if you’re quick enough and pull a few all-nighters ✨)

#dream of the endless #the sandman #morpheus #the sandman comics #netflix sandman #the sandman fanart #the sandman fanfiction #sandmanweek2023 #sandtember2023

[sandmanweek]

#the sandman #dream of the endless #morpheus #the sandman comics #netflix the sandman #netflix sandman #sandtember2023 #sandmanweek2023 #the sandman fanfiction