Soul Music characters

Appears from the start

A sixteen-year-old boarder at the Quirm College for Young Ladies, orphaned when her parents died in a coach accident. Relentlessly practical and unimpressed by anything that cannot be demonstrated, she has always been able to do things she has never questioned: people forget she is there when she wants them to, and doors are not always an obstacle. She has a white streak in her hair and a habit of asking exactly the question nobody wants asked. She has never been told who her grandfather is.

Appears from the start

The anthropomorphic personification of death, a robed skeleton who collects the souls of the dying and speaks in a voice that arrives inside the head. Curious about the living for far longer than is good for him, he has taken a family, an apprentice and a granddaughter, and he remembers everything, permanently and in full. Faced with a loss he cannot accept, he abandons his duty and goes away to find out whether it is possible for him to forget.

Appears from the start

Duke of Sto Helit, and Susan's father. Once a farm boy taken on as Death's apprentice, he left that service to marry Death's adopted daughter Ysabell and to rule a small, prosperous duchy. He and his wife raised Susan deliberately as an ordinary child, telling her nothing whatever about where the family came from.

Also known as Buddy

First appears in chapter 2

A young harpist from Llamedos, a wet and rocky country of rain, druids and bards, who has left home against his father's wishes to make a living from music in the city. Earnest, gentle and entirely without worldly sense, he believes that music matters more than anything else, which is a more dangerous position than he understands. His name means bud of the holly.

First appears in chapter 8

A dwarf horn player in Ankh-Morpork, short of money, short of patience and short of most other things. He is the practical member of any group he joins, permanently concerned with where the next meal is coming from, and a competent musician who has never come close to being a famous one.

Also known as Cliff

First appears in chapter 10

A troll musician who makes his rhythms by striking rocks, and who has been scraping a living in the city's less rewarding venues. Slow, amiable and considerably shrewder than he appears, he adopts a shorter stage name once the band starts getting noticed.

First appears in chapter 12

Death's servant, an elderly, dry, permanently disapproving man who keeps the house, cooks, and has run the domestic side of the Duty for a very long time. He was once a wizard, and he has excellent reasons for staying exactly where he is. He is alarmed by his master's disappearance and knows better than most what it will cost.

First appears in chapter 20

The rodent branch of the Duty, a skeletal rat in a small black robe carrying a small scythe, who collects the souls of rats and takes a keen interest in matters well outside that remit. He communicates entirely in squeaks and is a great deal more effective than his size suggests.

First appears in chapter 28

A talking raven who acts as interpreter for the Death of Rats, in exchange for a diet he describes at length and nobody wants to hear about. He is opinionated, easily offended, and extremely reluctant to say a certain word aloud.

First appears in chapter 30

The Archchancellor of Unseen University, loud, hearty and impatient with anything requiring a committee. He notices that something is affecting his wizards and objects to it chiefly on the grounds of the noise and the embarrassment.

Also known as CMOT Dibbler

First appears in chapter 35

Ankh-Morpork's most enterprising street trader, who has failed at more industries than most people have heard of and has never once been discouraged. He recognises the new music as the largest opportunity of his career and appoints himself the band's manager, with contracts written in his own favour and merchandise ready before the first performance is over.

First appears in chapter 50

A senior wizard of Unseen University, elderly, portly and entirely conventional, until the new music reaches the faculty. He then develops opinions about hair, leather and rebellion that are new to him and deeply distressing to the Archchancellor.

First appears in chapter 50

A young, practical wizard of Unseen University who does most of the faculty's actual thinking and is the only member of it inclined to investigate a phenomenon rather than shout at it. He works out rather more about what the music is than anyone wants to hear.

First appears in chapter 48

The secretary of the Guild of Musicians, who controls who is allowed to play for money in Ankh-Morpork and enforces it rigorously. Small-minded, procedural and absolutely certain of his own authority, he regards unlicensed musicians as a threat to the trade and is prepared to go a long way to remove one.

First appears in chapter 90

The orangutan keeper of Unseen University's library, who turns out to be a capable pianist when the occasion demands it, and who is not remotely self-conscious about joining in.