Music is one of the most powerful tools through which films and TV programmes affect us. We might hear a sad melody that brings us to tears, a creepy tune that gives us goosebumps, or a funny song that compels us to laugh.

This effect is not limited to the silver and small screen. In his plays, William Shakespeare used music in a multitude of ways to delight, amuse, relax, confuse and frighten his audiences – and so did many of his contemporaries.

In my new book, Music and Emotion on the Caroline Stage, I demonstrate how emotions were controlled, provoked and directed through music in the early modern theatre. Specifically, in the Caroline period (1625-1649), during the reign of Charles I.

The most memorable instance of supernatural music in Shakespeare is the rhythmic chanting of “double, double toil and trouble” by the three witches in Macbeth. The witches’ rhythmical conjuring of apparitions in this play gave contemporary audiences an impression of what seeing “real” witches might have been like and the potential harm that they could do, provoking a fear response.

Although not everyone in the early modern period believed in witches, accusations of witchcraft were taken seriously by the authorities. There were several witch trials conducted in England. The most notable were in Pendle, Lancashire, including the 1612........

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