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Programme Note

Composer Note:

Feast Day is a narrative or portrait of a day spent in celebration. What is celebrated is not so much the issue here; rather it is the unfolding of a day of celebration itself: dawn and morning ceremony, preparation for the feast (a busy section of constructing and hammering), a processional of the principals involved in the feast, the feast itself (a boisterous affair) leading to a dance that lasts until dawn the next day.

Nevertheless, there are elements of this celebration that might be said to be drawn from the Buddhist tradition of a feast. These are that a feast is not a solemn gathering, but a celebration of the wakefulness and passion of the participants; that within the feast there might be a sense of longing and tenderness (expressed in the piece as the King’s Address); and that each participant, intoxicated by the feast, might utter a spontaneous song expressing his or her sense of longing or rejoicing.

-- Peter Lieberson