The Raft of the Medusa

Long before the tragic sinking of the Medusa, was the sinking of the French ship, The Medusa. The frigate Medusa was completed in 1806, launched in 1810, and saw action in the Napoleonic wars. In 1816, it set sail from French to its ultimate location in Senegal to repossess it from the British. Along with cargo, there were almost 400 people on board. What no one knew, however, was that there was an incompetent captain on board with dubious skills.The ship was caught in a storm off the coast of Mauritania. After being damaged from hitting rocks and multiple attempts to relaunch it, it couldn't move. Soon, it was discovered that there was a shortage of lifeboats. Most of the crew and some of the passengers made their way to the lifeboats, saving about 250 people. That left about 149 others on board.Crew members left on board scrambled to build a raft for the others. The raft was launched and tied to one of the lifeboats. The hope was that everyone would make it to land, almost 60 miles away. The horror came, when the captain ordered the raft to be cut loose, claiming, that it was slowing everyone else down. That left the raft survivors to their own devices.Multiple days at sea brought on starvation, death and disease. People starved to death, and acts of desperation came about, such as the weak, but alive, being thrown overboard, and even cannibalism.Many days later, when survivors were finally rescued, there were only 15 people left alive, with 5 of them dying soon afterwards. News of the disaster quickly reached France, where both the government and the people were thoroughly outraged. Newspapers covered the disaster, and eventually there were trials prosecuting the captain and the crew for negligence. This can be considered as the first documented sea disaster.In 1818, 27 year- old Theodore Gericault was so moved by this disaster, that he painted his masterpiece, The Raft of The Medusa. To this day, the painting, which is enormous in size and almost the size of the raft itself, hangs in the Louvre.This is my first attempt at program music. It was my hope that I captured the mood, the feeling, and above all, in all good program music, that my composition told the story.