Witch Hunt - history told in music, sound, and story

Brian O'Connell

The history of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials told through music and story-telling in a format recalling an old time radio drama with a modern experimental prog-rock twist. Witch Hunt borrows freely from original sources of information from the time of the trials such as letters, books, poems, transcriptions of the trials themselves, as well as melodies from the Puritan hymn books. The music is highly original art-rock ranging from soft ambient soundscapes to heavy power riffs with many other stops along the way. The narrator provides a story teller voice that weaves a historical thread throughout each episode. Witch Hunt is conceived, written, and produced by Brian O'Connell, who records and produces the show, playing a wide variety of instruments and voice parts. Brian is a well known bassist and composer in New England who has performed with: Uncle Sammy, Gordon Stone, Gary Backstrom, Dave Brunyak, Interminable, and Rev Tor's Steal Your Peach Band. In 2012 Brian debuted his rock opera Over The Line, a Jungian journey through modern consciousness, for a successful series of performances in Boston. Brian O'Connell - voice, 6 and 12 string guitars, bass, touch guitar, sintir, keys, synth, percussion Mike Harmon - drums, cymbals, percussion. www.brianvoconnell.com. www.brianoconnellfellowship.com

Episodes

During the extremely cold winter of 1692 an intense frustration has been building in Salem Village, a small farming community up the road from the more prosperous and worldly port city of Salem Town. Many factors are coalescing into a perfect storm:...

Mar 9, 2021

23 min

Episode 2 - The City on a Hill

Samuel Parris takes on the job as minister to Salem Village, a marginalized farming community split by rivalry and controversy. Salem Village is overshadowed by the larger and much more prosperous Salem Town, one of the two largest towns in the...

Oct 31, 2020

20 min

Episode 1 - Tituba's Journey

The story of an Arawak woman called Tituba, how she was kidnapped by the English from South America when she was just a young girl and enslaved, and how she absorbed multiple cultural influences growing up on a plantation in Barbados, both from her fellow enslaved Africans and her English mistress. Her inner world becomes a confluence of Arawak, West African, and English myths and magic. We follow her as she is taken by a frustrated and angry young Puritan man named Samuel Parris to a new life in Massachusetts. They arrive first in Boston and then move to Salem Village, a small frontier community infested with jealousy and rivalry, and haunted by fear and suspicion. Episode 1 Parts: Part I - Witch Hunt Theme Part II - Old Oxford Tune (Psalm 4) Part III - Captured and Enslaved Part IV - The Cunning Tradition Part V - Parris, Boston, and Salem Part VI - Witch Hunt Theme (reprise) Variation on Old Oxford Tune (Psalm 4) (Music adapted from The Bay Psalm Book, published in Boston in 1698) Do you know of the coming storm? The people gone astray Their sins break free Satan from his chains Stars fall, moon turns to blood Fear, greed, and gossip rule the day Old rivalries reborn Blame cast upon thy neighbor’s home The Beast is free to roam History Book Sources "Tituba - Reluctant Witch of Salem - Devilish Indians and Puritan Fantasies" by Elaine G. Breslaw, New York University Press, 1996 "The Devil's Dominion - Magic and Religion in Early New England" by Richard Godbeer, Cambridge University Press, 1992

Sep 29, 2020

22 min