This hour, we’re getting into the spooky spirit by exploring the relationship between music and witchcraft in the historical imagination. The moral panic around witchcraft in Europe and its colonies lasted more than five centuries, and there’s plenty to listen to along the way. We’ll hear depictions of witches singing and dancing, music connected to famous witch trials, and tunes that transmit witchy folklore. On our featured release, a new complete recording of André Campra’s 1695 Requiem Mass from William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.
PLAYLIST
Everybody’s Tune
Les Witches
Alpha | ALPHA823 (2014)
Anonymous
Tr. 10 Pavane dan Vers (4:35)
Segment A:
Scotland’s Music
Mary McMaster
Linn Records | CKD008 (1992)
Anonymous
Tr. 5 “Pi li li liu”(1:23)
The Prince’s Almain
Nigel North
Naxos | 8.572178 (2010)
Robert Johnson
Tr. 7 The Witches’ Dance (1:42)
Waytes
Piffaro
Navona | NV5823 (2009)
Anonymous
Tr. 19 The second witch’s dance (2:10)
Witches and War-Whoops: Early New England Ballads
John Alison
Folkways FH 5211
Anonymous/John Alison
Tr. 4 Susanna Martin (3:48)
A Gift to be Simple
The Gregg Smith Singers
The Gift of Music | CCLCDG1136 (2004)
Henry Ainsworth
Tr.2 Psalm 100 (0:23)
The Topping Tooters of the Town
The City Musick
Avie Records | AV2364 (2017)
John Dowland
Tr. 18 Psalm 100: All people that on earth do dwell (2:23)
Das Buxheimer Orgelbuch, vol. 1
Joseph Payne
Naxos | 8.553466 (1995)
Anonymous
Tr. 26 Pange lingua gloriosi (1:33)
Oh Flanders free
Capilla Flamenca
Naxos | 8.554516 (2000)
Heinrich Isaac
Tr. 12 Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (4:38)
Midpoint Break Music Bed:
All the World’s a Stage
Musica Donum Dei
The Gift of Music | CCLCDG1110 (2005)
Anonymous
Tr. 19 Masque of Queens: Witches Dance No. 1
Segment B:
Firminius Caron: Masses and Chansons
The Sound and the Fury, Sven Schwannberger
Fra Bernardo | FB1207302 (2012)
Firminius Caron
Tr. 2 Missa Accueilly m'a la belle: Kyrie (5:22)
Musique a la Chapelle Sixtine autour de 1490
Cut Circle, Jesse Rodin
Musique en Wallonie | MEW1265-66
Josquin Desprez
Tr. 1 Nardi Maria pistici (1:45)
Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
La Risonanza, Coro Costanzo Porta, Fabio Bonizzoni
Challenge Classics | CC72737 (2016)
Henry Purcell
Tr. 10 Act II Scene 1: Wayward Sisters, you that fright (5:42)
Featured release:
Campra: Requiem & Miserere
Les Arts Florissants, William Christie
Pentatone PTC5187479 (2025)
André Campra
Tr. 3 III. Graduel (5:34)
Tr. 8 I. Miserere mei Deus (4:58)
Theme Music Bed: Ensemble Alcatraz, Danse Royale, Elektra Nonesuch 79240-2 [ASIN: B000005J0B], T.12: La Prime Estampie Royal