‘The Desert.’--The theme of the work on which David’s fame chiefly rests is the desert with its silent vastness, its gloom, and its grandeur. The human interest is centred on a caravan in various situations, in the description of which the composer, with remarkable success, invokes genuine local color; his Arabs are no mere disguised Frenchmen. Throughout the orchestral introduction a sustained C symbolizes the dreary monotony of the boundless stretches of sand; a fantastic hymn of homage to Allah is sung; the march of the caravan is brilliantly depicted, first by the orchestra and then by the chorus; the caravan battles with a fierce simoon; calm is restored and the march is resumed until evening halts it. The second part, entitled ‘Night,’ opens with a charming tenor solo (‘O night, O lovely night’), after which the orchestra plays an ‘Arab Fantasia’ and a ‘Dance of the Dancing Girls.’ The chorus sings of freedom in the desert and the tenor indulges in an evening meditation, to an accompaniment in Oriental rhythm. The third part (‘Sunrise’) begins with a chant of the muezzin, founded on a real Arabian melody, calling the faithful to prayer, and then the caravan departs on its journey, to the choral music heard in the first part. The opening hymn to Allah, with some modifications, brings the work to a close. The Oriental atmosphere is preserved throughout to an astonishing degree. [Illustration: Cantata Writers of the Nineteenth Century: Top: Ferdinand Hiller and Félicien David Bottom: Niels W. Gade and W. Sterndale Bennett] It will be observed that the Germans have been given by far the most numerous representation among the choral works thus far mentioned, there being among them compositions by only three composers of other nationalities--Gade, a Dane, and Berlioz and David, both Frenchmen. This numerical difference represents a fair statement of the relative importance of choral music in continental countries in the period under present discussion (that is, from 1800 to about 1870). In France choral music was entirely overshadowed in artistic significance by the opera, as, indeed, were all other forms of music. The list of German composers of cantatas and shorter choral works might be even still further extended by the inclusion of Robert Franz (1815-1892), the writer of exquisitely refined songs, who also composed the 117th Psalm for double chorus _a cappella_, a Kyrie for four-part chorus and solos _a cappella_, and a Liturgy for the Evangelical service; and Franz Abt (1819-1885), chiefly known by ballads of a folk-song character and a large number of cantatas for female voices and male voices, all written in an easy, flowing, popular style.