A look at the music of witch hunts surrounding the Salem witch trials derived from Arthur Millers "The Crucible".

1. A Look At The Importance
Of Music In Witch Hunts
By: Marisa Chiaravalloti
For NPF 188’s Amazing MindBlogling Expo

2. What Were Witch Hunts?
Depiction of a woman on her way to be executed for
practicing witchcraft taken from The Boston Globes
article titled Witch Hunts: From Trials To Trump
Witch hunts have been told as scary stories for many years,
but these horror stories of death and despair come from real
events. Witch hunts were the act in which people would seek
out others (mainly women) speculated of practicing
witchcraft. This included hunting for specific individuals
that confessed or were expected of practicing witchcraft as
well as evidence of witchcraft. In pagan times, this needed
no predetermined notion other than one's “gut feelings” to
convict another individual of witchcraft. From this, issues
arouse as without strong evidence of someone practicing
magic, people were wrongfully accused. This lead to the
deaths of innocent people who had not practiced witchcraft
of any kind. This problem became apparent after the
tragedies of the Salem Witch Trials

3. The Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials was the infamous event that took
place in Salem Massachusetts in the beginning of February
1692. Three women named Sarah Good, Sarah Osbourne and
Tituba were wrongfully convicted of practicing witchcraft as
people in the town of Salem started to fall into a sick “daze”.
These women stated that they did not practice witchcraft, but
as the trial went on and peoples minds became filled with lies
and deceit, these women and their families stories started to
change. Tituba falsely admitted to practicing witchcraft and
stated that both Sarah’s had also done so and forced her. With
their families, friends and the government of the town against
them, both Sarah’s were hung for witchcraft. Tituba was
released under the fact that she admitted to practicing magic.
The idea that a false confession holds more weight then the
truth was the fundamental reasons for the murder of 24
innocent people during these witch trials. This issue is
explored and told in depth through modern media such as
Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”.
Artistic depiction of a court case during the Salem Witch Trials
taken from Historys Article titled Salem Witch Trials

4. The Crucible
The story told through “The Crucible” novel and movie
adaptation follows the events of the Salem witch trials. It
follows the story of these women and a man and how they
navigate through being wrongfully convicted of magic
under the prosecution of a protestant community. The novel
and movie does not end well for John Proctor the
protagonist of this story. He attempts to fight against the
community for his wife who is wrongfully convicted of
witchcraft from his past mistress. When he attempts to get
her out and tell their truth, he himself gets convicted of
witchcraft and ends up in the same situation as her. The
church and town wants John to confess to witchcraft and
sign a contract that states he in fact once engaged in black
magic but John never did this and does not want his name
torn apart over false accusations. Due to this, John is hung
in front of the townspeople for a crime he never even
committed.
A front cover of the novel
“The Crucible” by Arthur
Miller
Promotional poster for the
film “The Crucible” by
Nicholas Hynter

5. So…
Where Does
Music Come Into
All Of This??
The Sanderson sisters casting a spell by
performing “I Put A Spell On You” in
Disneys film “Hocus Pocus”

6. From The Past To The Present
Depiction by Mary Evans drawn sometime
between 1844-1928 of pagan witches chanting
and dancing with the devil titled “Dance Of The
Witches”
Photo taken in 2020 by Fox and Bird
Photography of a Witches coven in CA,
Alberta singing and dancing in the forest

7. The Power Of Music
It is thought in Catholicism that singing is like praying
two times. Similarly in witchcraft, it is believed that
through singing and chanting, spells become stronger
and can manifest quickly. This aspect of witchcraft
has developed over the last hundreds of years from the
early stages of chanting and dancing in a circle to
creating full length studio albums to help manifest a
witches spell. Modern day witch Gwion Raven
explains in her article for Patheos that she uses the
power of music in her everyday practice of witchcraft.
She sings everyday to help manifest her spells
quickly, and she says it makes her feel more
connected to her craft.
Awake, awake,
you ancient
watchers
Awake awake and
let me in
Come down come
down, from your
waiting houses
Come down come
down and let me
in
A song off of Sharon Knight and T. Thorn Coyle’s
album “Songs For The Waning Year” that modern
day witch Gwion Raven sings as spell practice

8. Music During The Salem Witch Trials
Depiction of three witches casting a spell
through a sung spell taken from Patheos
article titled The Magical Practice of
Singing
During the time of “The Crucible”, also known as
the Salem Witch trials, music was considered to
chanting rather than what we know today. Witches
would gather around in group and chant spells to a
melody for anywhere from two minutes to hours on
end. They believed that their chanting created a
higher vibration than just speaking, and that
combined all together, it was very powerful.
Witches used this technique to cast spells, but in
terms of the story outlined in “The Crucible”, the
people who were using music more to their
advantage was actually the church…

9. How The Church Uses Music Against
Witchcraft
In “The Crucible”, the biggest enemy of John Proctor
and all those who are convicted of witchcraft was the
church. The church was the biggest influence on the
entire town of Salem at that time, the only direction
people had was developed by the church; if the church
said something was wrong, than everyone believed it
to be wrong. Music is a large part of religion and
worship, so people sang praise and worship songs to
ward off the devil and bad spirits. In this time, the
mobs and church would sing church songs to ward off
bad entities and spirits that they believed to be
infecting these so called “witches” and the young
people that were under their “spells’.
A mob infiltrating a meeting over a woman
convicted of witchcraft from The New Yorker
article titled The Single Greatest Witch Hunt
In American History

10. In summary, music has inspired and been apart
of all aspects of witch hunts. As seen through
the Salem Witch Trials Depicted in “The
Crucible”, witches have been using music for
years to enhance their spells as well as the
church using music to cast out the evil of
witches and heal the people under their dazed
spell

11. Thank You!!!