Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Biography  





2 Works  



2.1  Instrumental  





2.2  Vocal  







3 References  





4 External links  














Félicien David






Беларуская
Català
Deutsch
Español
Esperanto
Français
Italiano
مصرى

Occitan
Polski
Русский
Suomi
Svenska
 

Edit links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 




In other projects  



Wikimedia Commons
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Woodburytype of Félicien David

Félicien-César David (13 April 1810 – 29 August 1876) was a French composer.

Biography[edit]

Félicien David was born in Cadenet, and began to study music at the age of five under his father, whose death when the boy was six left him an impoverished orphan. His good voice enabled him to study as a choirboy at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence, which he left at the age of 15 with a sound knowledge of music, and a scholarship which enabled him to study literature at a Jesuit college. However, after three years, he abandoned these studies to pursue a musical career.

He first obtained a position in the orchestra of the theatre at Aix. In 1829, he became maître de chapelleatSaint-Sauveur, but realised that to complete his musical education he needed to study at Paris. An allowance of 50 francs per month from a rich uncle made this possible.

Félicien David in 1858

In Paris in 1830 he convinced Luigi Cherubini, the director of the Conservatoire, to enroll him as a pupil: despite his reservations, Cherubini recognised the talent shown by David's choral setting of Beatus vir. Despite the sudden withdrawal of his uncle's subsidy, David's studies, with Fétis and others, continued successfully.

On leaving the Conservatoire, David was caught up in the Saint-Simonian movement, for which he became a great enthusiast. The Saint-Simonians held music to be an important art, and David wrote much music for them, including a number of hymns. After the suppression of the movement in 1832, David joined with a number of adepts who visited the Middle East. This also proved a source of strong inspiration, leading eventually to his greatest success, the symphonic ode Le désert of 1844.

Returning to Paris in 1833, he wrote a number of romances, and instrumental music including three symphonies (in F major, E major and C minor, composed in 1837, 1838 and 1849);[1] by 1838/39 he was successful enough to be able to arrange public performances of his works. With Le désert he was acknowledged by the public and the critics as a significant force. The Revue et gazette musicale announced, the morning after its premiere, "A great composer has been born amongst us". To relieve his substantial debts, however, the composer sold the rights to his masterpiece for a relatively small sum.

David in a Brazilian setting (a reference to his 1851 opéra comique, La perle du Brésil) surrounded by comic allusions to several of his major works, from an undated theatrical illustration (ca. 1860).

David wrote a number of operas, of which the most notable are Christophe Colomb (1847), La perle du Brésil (1851), Herculanum (1859), and Lalla-Roukh (1862). Amongst his oratorios are Moïse au Sinaï ('Moses on Sinai') (1846), and Eden (1848).

David became a member of the Légion d'honneur in 1862 and was given a civil pension. On the death of Berlioz in 1869, he took his place in the Institut de France. He died in Le Pecq (now Saint-Germain-en-Laye) in the département Yvelines, close to Paris, in 1876.

Works[edit]

Instrumental[edit]

Vocal[edit]


This performance in 1917 includes singing by Amelita Galli-Curci with Clement Barone on flute, and Josef Pasternack conducting (4:09).

References[edit]

  1. ^ Cf. the content to this effect on [musicologie.org Musicologie.org].
  • ^ Musicologie.org- lists no.3 in E as being in E, but there is substantial evidence elsewhere that their key is wrong. No.3 is in E major, was published in 1846 by Meissonnier, can be seen in partial manuscript at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and was recorded in 2017 by Ediciones Singulares.
  • External links[edit]


    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Félicien_David&oldid=1221616371"

    Categories: 
    1810 births
    1876 deaths
    19th-century classical composers
    19th-century French composers
    Conservatoire de Paris alumni
    French opera composers
    French male opera composers
    French Romantic composers
    Recipients of the Legion of Honour
    Members of the Académie des beaux-arts
    Musicians from Aix-en-Provence
    People from Vaucluse
    Saint-Simonists
    19th-century French male musicians
    String quartet composers
    Hidden categories: 
    Articles with short description
    Short description is different from Wikidata
    Articles with hAudio microformats
    Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
    Articles with Internet Archive links
    Composers with IMSLP links
    Articles with International Music Score Library Project links
    Articles with FAST identifiers
    Articles with ISNI identifiers
    Articles with VIAF identifiers
    Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
    Articles with BNE identifiers
    Articles with BNF identifiers
    Articles with BNFdata identifiers
    Articles with CANTICN identifiers
    Articles with GND identifiers
    Articles with ICCU identifiers
    Articles with J9U identifiers
    Articles with KBR identifiers
    Articles with LCCN identifiers
    Articles with Libris identifiers
    Articles with NKC identifiers
    Articles with NTA identifiers
    Articles with PLWABN identifiers
    Articles with PortugalA identifiers
    Articles with CINII identifiers
    Articles with MusicBrainz identifiers
    Articles with BMLO identifiers
    Articles with DTBIO identifiers
    Articles with Trove identifiers
    Articles with RISM identifiers
    Articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
    Articles with SUDOC identifiers
     



    This page was last edited on 30 April 2024, at 23:43 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki