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Witch Hunt - history told in music, sound, and story - Episode II - The City on the Hill

by Brian O'Connell

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

A rock opera podcast by Brian O'Connell

Available on most podcast streaming platforms and at: www.buzzsprout.com/1359307

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 proggressive-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.

EPISODE II - The City on the 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 Massachusetts Bay Colony. The colony is ruled by the Puritans, who have broken away from the Church of England and colonized New England in hopes of creating a model Christian society, a "City on a Hill”. Crisis evolves as newer generations lack the religious enthusiasm of the founders. Hardship presses down on the colony on many fronts: war with Native tribes, disease epidemics, religious controversy, political and economic crisis. The entry of Parris into the powder keg that is Salem Village sets off a firestorm of persecution and retribution.

Episode II Parts:

Part I - The Parsonage - Parris, with his family and Tituba, come to Salem Village

Part II - The City on the Hill - the story of the Puritans and New England (Second Meter - Psalm 119)

Part III - The Great Migration (w/ some lyrics borrowed from Michael Wigglesworth’s poem: “God’s Controversy with New England”, 1662)

Part IV - Village vs. Town

Part V - The Parsonage Reprise (w/ text taken from the sermon book of Samuel Parris, 1690-1691)


Sources

"A Storm of Witchcraft - The Salem Witch Trials and the American Experience“ by Emerson W. Baker, Oxford University Press, 2015

"Salem Possessed - The Social Origins of Witchcraft“ by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Harvard University Press, 1974

"The Puritans in America - Narrative Anthology” edited by Alan Heimert and Andrew Delbanco, Harvard University Press, 1985


Support the show (venmo.com/Brian-OConnell-74537)

lyrics

The Great Migration

We have crossed the ocean of rebirth

Planted seeds in this God given earth

Behold the pleasures of the fruitful fields

Flowing full of all good things that they yield

Realize his will

Let the world see the city on the hill

His word shall be fulfilled, his kingdom we shall build

*

Search your soul and pray for holy grace

Confess your sins let the tears baptize your face

Only a very few are chosen to be saved

The Devil takes the rest for his own to be enslaved

By searching deep within

You might find a clue and then begin

To see the holy truth, to realize your sin

*

We brought ourselves to plant on the western shore

Where none but beasts and warriors did swarm

One wave another follow and one disease begins

Before another cease because we turn not from our sins

Our fruitful seasons cast in doubt

Through great pain and dry and parching drought

Defenders in a route, our hopes are all dashed out

*

The clouds gather as if we finally will see rain

But for our sinfulness are scattered round again

We pray and fast as if to take a turn

But we turn not and our fields and fruits will burn

Oh sinful land don’t think it strange

If judgement comes down on you unless you change

The Devil in a rage, affairs must rearrange

credits

released March 31, 2021
All music written by Brian O'Connell, except "Second Meter - Psalm 119", adapted from The Bay Psalm Book, 1698.

Brian O'Connell - voice, bass guitar, fretless bass, 8-string bass, piccolo bass (solo on The Great Migration), 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, keyboards, moog synthesizers, bass drum

Mike Harmon - drums, cymbals, percussion

Recorded at Studio Vinniechops and Wachusett Recording, 2020

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Brian O'Connell Massachusetts

Widely known for his inventive and kinetic bass and touch guitar playing with Arukah, Uncle Sammy, Gordon Stone, Gary Backstrom, Dave Brunyak, and Dead Man's Waltz. O'Connell also has a strong compositional approach that is featured in his rock opera and original bands. His most recent solo project is a podcast-rock opera about the Salem Witch Trials called Witch Hunt. www.brianvoconnell.com ... more

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