According to an American psychiatrist of Canadian origin Eric Berne social time structuring is one of means helping to protect man’s own mental health. A person who is the exclusive master of his/her own time and only he/she decides how to pass it, can avoid mental disorders only with difficulties. A human being lives in harmony with the time of nature which connects him/ her to the universe. He/she also lives in compliance with the time of the society that connects him/her with other people. The most ancient religions distinguished not only the time of the calendar, but also the time filled by meaning. They divided a year into working days and semantic days dedicated to common activities. The working time and the feast time alternate in human life. Without this rhythm the human life would be unbearable.

Once, a long time ago, some wise man joined the feast time with music. It happened not only in Europe, but in all human cultures. The feast time is a unique integrator of the society and music belongs to its most significant aides.

Our Bratislava Music Festival has been filling our lives with the music feast time for five decades. It brings a necessary suspension, a contrast in time character into our life, and enables us to accept music works which attract and command our attention. Musical works of composers performed by musicians lead our consciousness into well-known as well as less known worlds. The magic of music time is a feast time and musicians enable us, at least for a moment, to become its inseparable component.

Vladimír Godár