Belshazzar's Feast is a cantata by the English composer William Walton. It was first performed at the Leeds Festival on 8 October 1931, with the baritone Dennis Noble, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Leeds Festival Chorus, conducted by Malcolm Sargent. The work has remained one of Walton's most celebrated compositions. Osbert Sitwell selected the text from the Bible, primarily the Book of Daniel and Psalm 137. The work is dedicated to Walton's friend and benefactor Lord Berners.
Plot
In the story of Belshazzar's Feast, the Jews are in exile in Babylon. After a feast at which Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, commits sacrilege by using the Jews' sacred vessels to praise the heathen gods, he is miraculously killed, the kingdom falls, and the Jews regain their freedom.
List of movements
Although they are not specified in the published score, there is a clear delineation between sections, as follows:
[Introduction] Thus spake Isaiah
By the waters of Babylon/If I forget thee O Jerusalem
[Transition] Babylon was a great city
In Babylon, Belshazzar the King made a great feast
Praise ye
Thus in Babylon, the mighty city
[Transition] And in that same hour
Then sing aloud to God our strength
The trumpeters and pipers were silent
Then sing aloud to God our strength
Text
Thus spake Isaiah –
Thy sons that thou shalt beget
They shall be taken away, And be eunuchs In the palace of the King of Babylon Howl ye, howl ye, therefore: For the day of the Lord is at hand!
By the waters of Babylon, By the waters of Babylon There we sat down: yea, we wept And hanged our harps upon the willows.
For they that wasted us
Required of us mirth; They that carried us away captive Required of us a song. Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord's song
In a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
By the waters of Babylon
There we sat down: yea, we wept.
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, Happy shall he be that taketh thy children And dasheth them against a stone, For with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down And shall be found no more at all.
Babylon was a great city, Her merchandise was of gold and silver, Of precious stones, of pearls, of fine linen, Of purple, silk and scarlet, All manner vessels of ivory, All manner vessels of most precious wood, Of brass, iron and marble, Cinnamon, odours and ointments, Of frankincense, wine and oil, Fine flour, wheat and beasts, Sheep, horses, chariots, slaves And the souls of men.
In Babylon
Belshazzar the King
Made a great feast, Made a feast to a thousand of his lords, And drank wine before the thousand.
Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels: Yea! the golden vessels, which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, Had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem.
He commanded us to bring the golden vessels
Of the temple of the house of God, That the King, his Princes, his wives And his concubines might drink therein.
Then the King commanded us: Bring ye the cornet, flute, sackbut, psaltery And all kinds of music: they drank wine again, Yea, drank from the sacred vessels, And then spake the King:
Praise ye
The God of Gold
Praise ye
The God of Silver
Praise ye
The God of Iron
Praise ye
The God of Wood
Praise ye
The God of Stone
Praise ye
The God of Brass
Praise ye the Gods!
Thus in Babylon, the mighty city, Belshazzar the King made a great feast, Made a feast to a thousand of his lords And drank wine before the thousand.
Belshazzar whiles he tasted the wine
Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels
That his Princes, his wives and his concubines
Might rejoice and drink therein.
After they had praised their strange gods, The idols and the devils, False gods who can neither see nor hear, Called they for the timbrel and the pleasant harp To extol the glory of the King. Then they pledged the King before the people, Crying, Thou, O King, art King of Kings: O King, live for ever...
And in that same hour, as they feasted
Came forth fingers of a man's hand
And the King saw
The part of the hand that wrote.