David Bedford facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Bedford
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | David Vickerman Bedford |
| Born | 4 August 1937 Hendon, Middlesex, England |
| Died | 1 October 2011 (aged 74) |
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| Instruments | Keyboards |
| Years active | 1969–2011 |
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David Vickerman Bedford (born August 4, 1937 – died October 1, 2011) was an English composer and musician. He was known for writing and playing both popular and classical music. David was the brother of conductor Steuart Bedford. His grandparents were composer and painter Herbert Bedford and composer Liza Lehmann. His parents were Leslie Bedford, an inventor, and Lesley Duff, an opera singer.
From 1969 to 1981, Bedford was a special composer at Queen's College, London. He also taught music in London schools from 1968 to 1980. In 1996, he worked closely with the English Sinfonia orchestra. Later, in 2001, he became the chairman of the Performing Right Society. This group helps musicians get paid for their work.
Contents
Early Life and Music Journey
David Bedford was born in Hendon, London. His father, Leslie Bedford, was an engineering director. His mother, Lesley Duff, was a soprano singer. She worked with the English Opera Group.
He went to school at Lancing College in West Sussex. When he was 19, David chose not to join the military. This was because of his personal beliefs. Instead, he worked as a porter at Guy's Hospital in London.
Bedford studied music at the Royal Academy of Music. He learned from Lennox Berkeley. Later, he studied in Venice with Luigi Nono. His early music was influenced by composers like Nono and Arnold Schoenberg. In the mid-1960s, he taught music at Whitefield school. Then, in 1969, he became the composer in residence at Queen's College, London.
David Bedford was also a former president of the Severnside Composers' Alliance. He helped start the PRS for Music Foundation. This foundation supports new music.
Recording and Arranging Music
In 1969, David Bedford helped with Kevin Ayers' album Joy of a Toy. He wrote the orchestral parts and played keyboards. This led him to join Ayers' band, Kevin Ayers and the Whole World. They recorded one album, Shooting at the Moon (1970). On this album, Bedford played organ, piano, accordion, and marimbaphone. He also helped with later Kevin Ayers albums.
Bedford also worked with the band's saxophonist, Lol Coxhill. They formed the Coxhill-Bedford Duo. They released several singles of old vaudeville and British music hall songs. Bedford played piano and sang, while Coxhill played saxophone. One of their songs was "Don Alfonso".
David Bedford's first album of his own music was Nurses Song with Elephants (1972). On this album, he mixed classical music with poems and voices. For example, Some Bright Stars for Queen's College used twenty-seven plastic pipe twirlers. Even John Peel, a famous radio DJ, played a pipe twirler on it.
Bedford worked a lot with Mike Oldfield, who was the bass player for The Whole World. He arranged and conducted Oldfield's The Orchestral Tubular Bells album (1975). This was a version of Oldfield's famous Tubular Bells. Bedford also arranged Oldfield's Hergest Ridge (1974) for orchestra.
He also sang and played piano for Oldfield's songs like "Don Alfonso" (1974). Bedford helped Oldfield with a song called "First Excursion." He also arranged music for Oldfield's movie soundtrack, The Killing Fields (1984). Oldfield even started a record label just to release one of Bedford's albums.
Bedford signed a deal with Virgin Records. He made several albums for them. Some used orchestras, others featured his keyboards. Mike Oldfield also played on some of these albums. Titles included Star's End (1974) and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1975). The latter was a musical version of the famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
He also worked with the Edgar Broughton Band. He arranged strings for their song Up Yours!.
Bedford worked on several projects with singer Roy Harper. This included the album Stormcock (1971). He also conducted an orchestra for Harper's live concerts. In 2001, he joined Harper again for his 60th birthday concert.
David Bedford also worked with many other famous artists. These included A-ha, Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Madness.
Experimental Classical Music
Bedford was also known for his avant-garde classical works. This means his music was new and experimental. His 1963 piece Piece for Mo was very important. In 1965, he wrote Music For Albion Moonlight. This piece used poems by Kenneth Patchen. He continued to set Patchen's poems to music throughout his career.
He also wrote many pieces for wind orchestras. One example is Sun Paints Rainbows on the Vast Waves (1982). Many of these works were recorded by the Royal Northern College of Music.
Bedford wrote a lot of educational music for children. He often used unusual musical notation. Sometimes, he used drawings instead of normal notes. This allowed children who couldn't read music to perform his works. For example, in his piece Spillihpnerak (1972), there is a drawing of a molecule. The musician has to interpret it.
He used a similar idea for his 1972 work, With 100 Kazoos. In this piece, an orchestra plays with the audience. The audience uses kazoos. They were given space-themed pictures and asked to play their kazoos based on the pictures.
Bedford composed a long choral piece called "Twelve Hours of Sunset." It was based on a song by Roy Harper. The BBC asked him to write it. It was performed live at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1975.
He often combined skilled musicians with non-skilled ones. For example, Seascapes (1986) combined a symphony orchestra with school children. Stories from the Dreamtime (1991) was written for 40 deaf children and an orchestra. He also used unusual sounds. For instance, a singer might be asked to scream into a piano. In The Song of the White Horse (1978), the choir was told to breathe helium gas. This helped them reach very high notes.
Science fiction was a big interest for Bedford. His piece The Tentacles of the Dark Nebula used words from a story by Arthur C. Clarke. The title Star's End came from a book by Isaac Asimov. Rigel 9 was a play based on a book by Ursula K. Le Guin. Bedford composed the background music for it.
Bedford's music is often called modern, experimental, or avant-garde. He was known for using unique and experimental sounds.
Personal Life
David Bedford loved science fiction. He was also very interested in astronomy and cricket. These hobbies often inspired his music.
David Bedford passed away from lung cancer in October 2011. He was survived by his third wife, his seven children, and his brother Steuart. Steuart passed away in 2021.
After his death, many concerts were held to remember him. One of his later works for children, The Wreck of the Titanic, was performed many times. In 2018, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a concert. It celebrated what would have been Bedford's 80th birthday. The program included his orchestral version of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.
See also
In Spanish: David Bedford para niños
