Rue Félicien David

Félicien David was born in Cadenet, and began studying music at the age of five under his father, whose death at the age of six left him an impoverished orphan. His good voice enabled him to study as a choirboy at the church of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence, which he left at age 15 with a solid knowledge of music and a scholarship that allowed him to study literature at a Jesuit college. In Paris in 1830, he convinced Luigi Cherubini, the director of the Conservatoire, to enroll him as. Upon graduating from the Conservatory, David was caught up in the Saint-Simonian movement, which he became passionate about. The Saint-Simonians considered music an important art, and David wrote a lot of music for them, including a number of hymns. After the suppression of the movement in 1832, David joined a number of followers who visited the Middle East. This also proved to be a strong source of inspiration, eventually leading to his greatest success, the symphonic ode The Desert of 1844. The Revue et gazette musicale announced, the day after its premiere, "A great composer is born among us. However, to relieve his substantial debts, the composer sold the rights to his masterpiece for a relatively modest sum. David became a member of the Légion d'honneur in 1862 and received a civil pension. On Berlioz's death in 1869, he took his place at the Institut de France. He died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in 1876.