those of the fraternity who travelled into the cast, and there received impressions which have manifested themselves in his subsequent works. In August, 1835, he returned to Paris, when he published his "Mélodies Orientales," which he had collected during his wanderings, hoping to reap a large profit from their sale; but he was disappointed in the result. He now passed some years as the guest of a friend in the country, applying himself sedulously to composition, and rarely appearing in public. He emerged from his retirement in 1838, and produced his symphony in E flat at the Concerts Valentino. This procured him some consideration among the Parisian musicians, which was confirmed by the effect of a nonet for brass instruments, one of the twelve since published, that was performed at the Concerts Musards in 1839. David derived more popularity and more profit from some songs published about this time, one of which, "Les Hirondelles," is almost as well known in this country as in France. His talents, however, remained in semiobscurity until the production of his ode symphonic "Le Désert," which was first performed at the concerts of the conservatoire, on the 8th of December, 1844. This work was equally novel in form and in character. It is divided into three parts, consisting of orchestral movements interspersed with choruses and vocal solos, and alternated with spoken recitation. It derives great local colouring from some Arabic melodies which are incorporated in it; and the picturesque imitation conspicuous throughout the composition, and the novel treatment of the orchestra, prove alike the author's lively fancy and his command of technical means for the expression of his original ideas. The success of "Le Désert" was enormous; it was transferred in consequence from the concert-room to the Théatre Italien, where its repeated performances were immensely attractive; and it was reproduced in London, at her Majesty's theatre, during the season of 1845, where it created little less sensation than it had done in Paris. "Moïse an Mont Sinaī," an oratorio, performed at the Académie Royale in March, 1846, was David's next composition of importance, but this had little success; he retrieved his artistic fortune, however, with "Christophe Colomb, ou la Découverte du Nouveau Monde," a second ode symphonie in four parts, which was produced at the concerts of the conservatoire in March, 1847. Another work of original construction was the mystère called "L'Eden," brought out, as the oratorio had been, at the grand opera in 1848. David now turned his attention to composition for the stage, and in November, 1851, produced at the Opéra National, now the Théatre Lyrique, "La Perle du Brésil," an opéra comique in three acts. On the 4th of March, 1859, his latest important composition, the grand opera of "Herculaneum," was produced at the Academie; its career was at first interrupted by the illness of a principal singer, but its subsequent success has been greater than that of anything David has given to the public since "Le Désert." Besides the works already noticed, David has published—"Album Religieux," 1853, consisting of six motets; "La Ruche Harmonieuse," 1854, a collection of choruses for male voices; twenty-four quintets for string instruments; twelve melodies for violoncello and pianoforte, 1847; a very large number of pieces for the pianoforte, and a still greater amount of separate songs of very various character.—G. A. M.
* DAVID, Ferdinand, a violinist and composer, was born at Hamburg in 1810. His sister Louise (long resident in London as Madam Dulcken until the year of her death in 1849) was equally precocious with Ferdinand in the manifestation of musical talent, and both children performed in public—she on the pianoforte and he on the violin—at a very early age. Their family was intimate with that of Mendelssohn, and this great musician passed much time in his infant years with the brother and sister, participating their childish games and artistic studies. In 1825 David went to Cassel to become the pupil of Spohr, under whose valued instruction on his instrument and in composition he remained until 1828. He now made a tour with his sister, in the course of which they were both eminently successful at several of the chief cities of Germany. Resting at Berlin, he obtained an engagement at the Königstädter theatre, which induced him to fix for a time his residence in that city. There he renewed his intercourse with Mendelssohn, and they resumed together their practice of the works of the great composers for their respective instruments; there also David produced his first compositions, which were pieces for his own performance. After three years he quitted Berlin as one of a quartet party, who established themselves at Dorpat, and gained some renown for their execution of the masterpieces of chamber music. He made a successful tour in Russia; returning to Germany from which, he was appointed, by the recommendation of his friend Mendelssohn, successor to Mathät as concertmeister at Leipzig, in November, 1835; which office, together with that of chief violinist at the theatre in the same city, he still holds. He visited London in 1839, where Madame Dulcken had been for some time located, and his talent was here much esteemed. On the institution of the conservatorium at Leipzig, of which Mendelssohn was the founder, David undertook the direction of the violin classes. Besides concertos and lighter compositions for the violin, he has written solo pieces for other instruments, some quartets, and some works for the concert room and for the theatre, all of which are characterized, like his playing, by mastery of his resources; but it is more as an executant than as a composer that he claims consideration.—G. A. M.
DAVID, Jacques Louis, the reformer of modern French painting was born at Paris on the 31st August, 1748, and died in exile at Brussels on the 29th December, 1825. Having at an early age lost his father, he was put under the guardianship of his maternal uncle, Buron, an architect whose first idea was to make young David follow his own profession. In this plan Mme. David, the mother, fully concurred. But they were both destined to be disappointed; for on an occasion on which the future artist went to deliver to Boucher, the court painter, and a relative of his mother, a letter which the latter had given him for that purpose, he so attracted that master's attention by the avidity with which he contemplated the surrounding works, that, after a short conference with the youth, Boucher himself solicited from David's mother and guardian that Louis should be intrusted to him to be educated for the career of a painter. This was a piece of good fortune for young David, so far as it permitted him to follow his inclination; but eventually it would have proved fatal to his prospects of distinction, on account of the vitiated style of the old artist, had it not been that Boucher, soon finding out the superior genius of his pupil and relative, with a frankness and self-denial of no ordinary kind, thought it necessary to hand him over to the more active care and more genuine tuition of Vien, another painter of greater experience in teaching, and of a better school of artists. From this time dates David's real ingress in the path of his profession; followed very soon by repeated attempts on his part to compete for academical honours. These attempts his neglect of certain conventional rules, or rather the originality of his genius, which rebelled against these rules, cruelly frustrated. He tried five times for the great prize in painting, and always without success; until, broken-hearted and in despair, he resolved to put an end to his life by refusing to take any nourishment. The interference of kind and encouraging friends prevented the accomplishment of this purpose; and David's next attempt was crowned with complete success. The immediate consequence of this was his departure for Italy, at a moment when, much to his advantage, his master had been appointed to the French Academy in Rome. Arrived in the capital of Italy, he gave himself up to the most constant, the most ardent worship of the antique. The results of these passionate studies were very soon evident in his picture of the "Plague of St. Roch," produced before he left Rome. It was the opening of a new era for the French school of painting, just as the first works of Canova had been the heralds of an epoch in Italian sculpture. The erratic distortions and the vapid fopperies of the then prevailing whimsical school, are entirely to be replaced by the most rigid, and if anything almost too statuesque design. The grand ideal of the Greco-Roman period succeeds the vagaries of Boucher and Watteau! Perhaps the reaction will even go too far; there may be danger that the evils of a frivolous anarchy shall only make room for those of a servile methodism. Followed by the admiration of all Rome, after five years' residence in the metropolis of the arts, David returned to France, to be there received with all possible honour. Admitted at the Academy—lodged at the Louvre—he is soon surrounded by a host of pupils and admirers. Domestic bliss having crowned his triumphs, once more he starts (with a young bride this time) for Italy, there to carry out a grand work, the subject of which, prepared in Paris, will be the "Horatii." The success of this work surpasses all former achievements, and his return to Paris with the finished picture is nothing less than a continued ovation. Amongst the demands for works, which from every quarter are
