The College Record 2022

DAVID BEVAN
David Bevan, who has died aged 70, was an organist,
composer, and tenor who for 36 years was director of
music at the Roman Catholic Church of Our Most Holy
Redeemer and St Thomas More, Chelsea; as a child he
had been a member of the Bevan Family Choir, sometimes
known as the von Trapps of the West Country, who toured
widely until the 1970s.
Obituaries
Somewhat self-deprecating by nature, Bevan did not consider himself a particularly
fine singer, but he was a loud and reliable one. His ability to deliver the big tenor
entries, such as the opening of the Rex Tremendae in Mozart’s Requiem, meant that
he received many invitations to sing with professional choirs.
As a composer his music had two distinct strands. For the church he wrote in the
style of the 16th century and earlier. His wonderful fauxbourdon arrangement of
the Magnificat, known as the “octavi toni” setting because it is based on the eighth
tone in medieval Gregorian chants, has become a staple of the repertoire. Other
compositions were more of a cross between Hindemith, Messiaen and Stravinsky
in style, and include sonatas for clarinet, flute, and cello as well as a Requiem Mass
that was heard at his funeral.
David Hugh Bevan was born in Wales on February 26 1951, the fourth of 14 children
of Mollie (née Baldock) and her husband Roger Bevan, who at the time was running a
small music school in Monmouthshire; a 15th sibling died shortly after birth. David’s
great-grandfather had been Anglican archdeacon of Ludlow, but his father converted
to Rome and in 1953 became director of music at Downside School, Somerset.
The family lived in a rambling 15th-century farmhouse set in two acres, where they
grew vegetables and kept pigs, geese, goats, sheep, and chicken. After dinner, the
Bevan siblings often burst into renditions of favourite madrigals; one of them would
pluck a note out of the air and away they would go.
As they grew in number, so too did the family choir and most of the siblings
were members, though not all at the same time. They undertook concert tours
around Europe, made several television appearances culminating in the 1977 BBC
documentary Harmony at Parsonage Farm, and performed at St John’s Smith
Square, London. Being one of the older children, David eventually took over the
conducting from his father.
He was head chorister at Westminster Cathedral Choir School, recalling the master
of music George Malcolm chain-smoking during choir practice. He then studied at
Downside and went on to read music at Queen’s College, Oxford.
College Record 2022 | The Queen’s College 107