DAVID, FELICIEN, a French composer, was b. Stb Mar , 1810, at Cadenet, in the department of Vaucluse. He was at first a chorister in the cathedral of Aix, and at the age of 20 entered the Paris conservatoire. Ile threw himself earnestly into the social speculations of his day; became an ardent disciple of St. Simon, and afterwards of Enfantin; and finally, on the break up of the brotherhood attempted at Menilmontaut in 1832, he betook himself, along with eleven of his fellow dreamers, to the east, there to realize his theory of life in undisturbed peace. The little knot of enthusiasts reached Constantinople, whence they made their way to Smyrna and Cairo. As they had no means, they suffered greatly from want, sickness, and ill-usage. The plague forced them to flee from Egypt, through the desert, to the coasts of Syria It is said that they dragged a piano with them over the sands, and often, when they rested on their toil some march among the wild tribes of the wilderness, D.,. whose ear, was quick to catch the native airs of the east, sent forth enchanting strains from the instrument, and made' his comrades forget their misfortunes. In 1835, he reached France, and published his •
.Afelodies Orientates for the pianoforte. They were unsuccessful; and D. remained in obscurity till 1844, when he brought out at the conservatoire his Desert, a grand Ode s-graphemic, as he called it, the words of which were furnished by his friend and fellow wanderer, M. Auguste Colin. Its success was sudden and complete. D. was declared a master at once, and his Desert was performed in all the theaters. Subsequently, he traveled through Belgium and Germany, and was everywhere greeted with applause. Less successful works were-31,018e SW' le Sinai (1846); Christophe Colombe; and Le J'aradis (1847); and La Perle die Bresil (1851); Herculaneum (1859); and Latta Rookli (1862). Appointed an officer of the leaion of honor in 1862; and in 1869, librarian to the Paris conservatoire de musique, D. died 29th Aug., 1876.