Music / Wintersmith

A collaboration between Steeleye Span and Terry Pratchett.

The group had a long association with Pterry one way or anotherEqual Rites

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Heroism: In Wintersmith, the Summer Lady is callous and uncaring, and it's made very clear that eternal summer would have been just as bad as eternal winter; it's just not what happened. The song "The Summer Lady" is about how wonderful she is for ending the cold. (Although the earlier "Fire and Ice" correctly portrays both the Summer Lady and the Wintersmith as neither good nor evil, just balanced.)
  • It's more in the style of those odes to nature and propitiation to the gods.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Steeleye Span wrote a song with this exact name loosely based on what Tiffany does in the book.
  Be careful what you wish for
  Dreams seem different in the light of day
  Be careful what you wish for
  That deep desire to have your way
  Could burn you, and turn your head around
• Concept Album: An excellent example, while primarily based on the Wintersmith book published five years previously, it draws on other books in the Tiffany Aching series
• Counterpoint Duet: "To Be Human" from the Deluxe version ofthe album has Tiffany singing that she must escape the Wintermith in counterpoint to the Wintersmith singing that he just wants to be human.
• Dual-Meaning Chorus: In "The Hiver" the chorus goes "Locked in screaming awareness/Of everything, all the time./How we envy you humans/When you gently close your minds." For most of the song, this is the well-known Discworld concept that Humans Are Special because they managed to invent boredom. After the last verse, "gently close your minds" refers to the other thing the Hiver can't do and humans can.
• "I Am" Song: A double example; the Nac Mac Feegle have "Wee Free Men" and the Summer Lady and Wintersmith have "Fire and Ice".
• List Song: "The Making of a Man" puts the poem "These Are the Things That Make a Man" which lists the ingredients that make up a man ("Iron enough to make a nail, water enough to drown a dog...") concluding with three intangibles (strength, time and love) to song. Reportedly Terry Pratchett's favourite track on the album.
• Obsession Song:
  • "You" has the Wintersmith declare that "Everything I touch turns into you". And as readers of the book know, this is absolutely literal. The actual lyrics appear passive, but there's a dark undercurrent to the tune that foreshadows the more aggressive turn he takes later.
  • The Deluxe edition has "To Be Human", which shows it from Tiffany's perspective
    Every smile seen as a sign,
    That somehow I've made you mine.
    Nothing could be more untrue.
    I need to escape from you!
• Promoted to Love Interest: Tiffany and Roland in the song "Just One Heart" from the deluxe album, which goes on at length about The Power of Love they share. Admittedly, in the books, there is more than one Shipper on Deck, and Tiffany is a bit jealous when she learns Roland visited a young noblewoman, so a case can be made ... except the album came out long after I Shall Wear Midnight, where Roland marries someone else and Tiffany starts stepping out with Preston.
• Setting Introduction Song: The Overture begins "Through the dark the turtle comes/Drifting past a thousand suns/Under the weight of Discworld". The full version of the A'Tuin song, "Ancient Eyes", comes near the end for some reason.
• Short Title: Long, Elaborate Subtitle: Every. Single. Track. For Example: "The Making of a Man: The Truth That Lies at The Heart of This Rhyme is the Wintersmith's Undoing". The subtitles aren't listed on the back of the CD sleeve, but they appear in the lyrics booklet and on the MP3 track listings.
• Spoken Word in Music: "The Good Witch", ends with Sir Terry Pratchett saying "A good witch never cackles" followed by the section from the book beginning "Cackling is not just nasty laughter".
• Villain Love Song: "Crown of Ice" sung by the Wintersmith after he's taken Tiffany to the Ice Palace:
  This is my world, but it could be ours,
  I asked you once and I asked you twice,
  To be my bride in the crystal kingdom,
  You look so pretty in a crown of ice.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Wintersmith" the song in the album of the same name about, who else? The Wintersmith.
  • It's also the Title Track.