TheFeast of the Pheasant (French:Banquet du Vœu du faisan,lit. 'Banquet of the Oath of the Pheasant') was a banquet given byPhilip the Good, Duke ofBurgundy on 17 February 1454 inLille, now in France. Its purpose was to promote acrusade against theTurks, who hadtaken Constantinople the year before. The crusade never took place.
There are contemporary accounts of the banquet (notably theMemoirs ofOlivier de la Marche, and theChroniques ofMathieu d'Escouchy), which name and describe in much detail the lavish entertainments staged during the meal and even the various pieces of music performed, perhaps includingDufay'smotetLamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae.[1] At one point in the entertainment, according to the chronicles, an actor dressed as a woman in white satin clothes, personifying theChurch of Constantinople (according to one hypothesis, played by Olivier de la Marche himself)[2] entered the hall of the banquet riding on an elephant, led by a giantSaracen, to recite a "complaint and lamentation in a piteous and feminine voice" ("commença sa complainte et lamentacion à voix piteuse et femmenine"), requesting aid from theKnights of the Golden Fleece. It has been surmised[3] that this was the moment when Dufay's motet would have been performed; other authors have conjectured that it was merely a moment of inspiration and that the motet was actually written later.[4]
We are also told which music byGilles Binchois was performed and of 24 musicians playing inside an enormous pie and a trick with a horse riding backwards.
The oath taken by the participants, theVœux du faisan (lit. 'oath of thepheasant') was in the tradition of the "bird oaths" ofLate Medieval France as popularized in the 14th century romance of theVoeux du paon.
