Hello, I am looking for someone to write an essay on The Shadow of Captain Bligh. It needs to be at least 750 words.Download file to see previous pages... MacLennan truly believes that Haydn was one o

Hello, I am looking for someone to write an essay on The Shadow of Captain Bligh. It needs to be at least 750 words.

MacLennan truly believes that Haydn was one of the greatest composers ever, and the particular composition he had just been listening to was so "majestic and intimate" that it was "worth all the music composed since the death of Beethoven." Moreover, the music flows smoothly and effortlessly, and it is impossible that it cannot drive any lover of music into raptures.

MacLennan is a great admirer of Haydn, appreciative of the speed with which the composer would produce beautiful music. But perhaps Haydn was not unique in that. the creative geniuses of his time- Handel, Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven, for example- were all highly proficient in composing masterpieces in a very short time. Handel, for example, composed The Messiah in a few weeks, and Mozart wrote one of his most famous symphonies in a couple of days.

MacLennan rues the fact that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have not produced such creative greats as those of older times . Whatever few have come, have been produced great works at long intervals in their career. "Our most famous poets will die leaving behind only a slim body of published verse", says MacLennan. "The average modern novelist takes from two to three years to write a single good novel," he rues. "Our musicians- men like Sibelius, Stravinsky, and Vaughan Williams- have together, in their long lives, equalled only a fraction of Haydn's output."

Yet, something troubles MacLennan- the indication that Haydn was possibly unaffected by the social injustices of his time, and apparently thought he owed responsibility to none but himself, his family, and his God.

MacLennan elucidates this view of his by saying that Captain William Bligh happened to be one of Haydn's contemporaries, and yet the former's atrocities had never affected the latter's work. Bligh, appointed Commanding Lieutenant of the ship H.M.S. Bounty for its trip to Tahiti to collect breadplants and take them to the West Indies to see if they flourished there, is famous for his cruelty. It is said- although there is no concrete proof to suggest this- that he regularly subjected his crew to abusive behavior. a sharp, acidic tongue was only a minor point compared to the flogging with which he punished his men. Mickey Spillane's Mutiny on the Bounty, says MacLennan, factually describes revolting episodes of Bligh's cruelty. Apparently, Bounty sailors were often punished by being flogged till the flesh hung in loose strips from their backs. and yet, Bligh's cruelty had the total sanction of the government he worked under. If the mutineers revolted on account of Bligh's cruelty, then their mutiny had practically no effect on society, and when they were later court-martialled, it wasn't once considered whether Bligh had really been so cruel as to drive the mutineers to rebellion.

And yet, nobody apparently cared what was happening in society. Haydn and his contemporary geniuses went on producing great works without a single care in the world, able to enjoy an odd sense of freedom from social responsibilities that subsequent artists have not been able to enjoy, says MacLennan. The shadow of Captain Bligh and his actions did not affect Haydn the way the miseries of the world have affected modern creative masters.