Song and Magic

I’ll confess that I watched the first two episodes of “Agatha All Along,” and now I’ve got the “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road (Sacred Chant Version)” playing in my head (written by Kristen Anderson Lopez and Robert Lopez, the same folks who brought you “Let It Go” and other Frozen songs).

It starts out in A minor, which is obligatory for that old time Child Ballad feel. It steers away from simple arpeggios just enough to keep you guessing, and there are accidentals and parallel fourths thrown in to break it out of a rigid pentatonic structure. The lyrics scan, with (mostly?) iambic hexameter in a rhyme structure AA (BB)C (DD)C for the verse and EEE(FF) for the chorus (which lends itself to a round of “down down down down / down the witches’ road”), flirting in 6/8 between a waltz, a conga, and a polka while still staying a chant.

The words mostly work. Since it’s a soundtrack from a work of fiction grounded in a Marvel franchise/Disney show, it’s not exactly a hymn to the Goddess nor a aria to the seasons and Earth processes — even if it does reference “Maiden, Mother, Crone” — I’m trying to decide if the folk references in the song constitutes cultural appropriation or not… and I think the chant is geared toward moving a story with Marvel/Disney magic in it more than stereotyping real-world magical practitioners.

At least it’s better than "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.” And so far, there haven’t been any references to “Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth.”

To be honest, I wish more of the traditional NeoPagan chants and poems I’ve encountered were half this good, and I can easily imagine using re-tooled variations like “down the autumn road.”