Inkanta
Group: Admins
Posts: 1453
Joined: Feb. 2000 |
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Posted: Oct. 06 2011, 18:18 |
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Hi all,
Matthew Sorell posted a lovely tribute to David over at the Amarok Mailing List. I am posting it here, with his permission.
Best,
Inkanta
*******
Like everyone else here, I was shocked and saddened to hear of David's death. According to the obituary in The Guardian, he died after a short battle with lung cancer.
I met David in 2008 in Bristol, while on sabbatical in the UK. We had acup of tea with his wife, then went to watch English bellringing (which David had never previously seen) at St Mary, Redcliffe. After dinner at a restaurant by the harbour, we proceeded to swap MP3s in his studio. I gave him a copy of Music of the Spheres (which he hadn't heard) and he handed over pretty much the entire collection of recordings of his music that he had available.
In 2006, I was involved in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's performance of the Orchestral Tubular Bells. When I made enquiries about contacting David, I was astonished to find a personal email from him the next day. He confirmed that "The main reason for orchestrating TB was that Richard Bransom offered me a large fee!". He was very helpful in assisting me to prepare a pre-concert talk, sent words of encouragement to the conductor, Ben Northey, and even posted a personal message to a fan gathering on the day.
"Heartiest greetings to all of you at the Tubular Bells convention! It's been a part of my musical life for more than 30 years and it's great that people still appreciate it. All best wishes for a successful and enjoyable convention. Warmest regards David Bedford"
When I asked him about his foray into pop music with Kevin Ayers, he said "It was actually more by accident than design - the manager of SoftMachine had heard some of my arrangements for a chanteuse and asked me to do some arranging on Kevin's first solo LP Joy of a Toy. Since this involved some keyboards it was a natural progression for me to be asked to join the band. Mike joined after being auditioned by Kevin. It's true that my classical colleagues were in the main rather snobbish about my involvement."
For Mike fans (ie all of you), find a copy of "Instructions for Angels". Track 5 features David on pipe organ and Mike on screaming electric guitar at Worcester Cathedral. David tells me when this was recorded (1976 or 77), the public got wind of the recording session and a crowd burst into the Cathedral, to find Mike standing in the centre aisle rolling a cigarette.
It's also worth digging out First Excursion. For a bit of silliness, try also "Speak (Tho' You Only Say Farewell)" which was recorded, he says, as a joke.
David was a first-rate avant-garde and classical composer away from the pop scene. I recommend highly the CD "Twelve Hours of Sunset", which contains an astonishing Recorder Concerto and the magnificent choral piece "12 Hours of Sunset". He was also an inspiring music teacher, engaging with children in particular to compose and perform music. His avant-garde techniques of loose musical notation served him well both with working with pop musicians and with children with little formal music training. See if you can dig up his arrangements of Beach Boyshits for your local choir.
David had intended to be at the Tubular Bells performance at St George's Cathedral, Bristol, on November 4 ( http://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event.php?pid=1197) according to our last communication. Sadly, he'll miss this performance of the piece of music that would never have seen the light of day without his active encouragement of Mike to pursue his ideas while they were part of TheWhole World.
"Yes we had long chats about music in our Ford Transit during journeys to and from gigs. I gave him suggetions for listening, ranging from Delius to Terry Riley and Stravisky and Carl Orff."
David was quiet and unassuming, always willing to talk to fans, performers and students. His contribution to modern avant-garde, classical and pop music is surprisingly profound. Whether you listen to Enya, Madness, Mike Oldfield or your local school choir, you'll hear his influence whenever you least expect it.
Nice guy, meet 'em everywhere...
-------------- "No such thing as destiny; only choices exist." From: Moongarden's "Solaris."
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