Our friend David Evans, who has died aged 69 of a heart attack, was former senior lecturer in music at Bangor University. As a scholar, David was an authority on the music of Thomas Tomkins and Adrian Batten, and worked for many years on the 17th-century part-books from Chirk Castle in north-east Wales. But it was his rapport with students that resonates most strongly with those who knew him. An inspired teacher of the dark arts of four-part harmony and Palestrina counterpoint, he leaves generations of students able to spot a consecutive fifth at 40 paces – students who today occupy musical professions across Wales and beyond. Their stories of David's kindness are legion.
Born to a midwife and a builder in Llanelli, south Wales, David demonstrated musical talent from an early age. His lifelong love of Anglican church music began as a boy chorister. He learned the French horn and became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, where he met his future wife, Catherine. He went on to read music at University College, Cardiff, before embarking upon a career in academia that would embrace every one of the Welsh music departments over the course of more than 40 years, including Bangor from 1990 onwards. For much of that time, Catherine worked alongside him as music librarian; her death from cancer in 2005 was a major blow to him.
David never confined himself to a closeted academic lifestyle. Instead, he brought music to as wide an audience as possible: working with Alun Hoddinott at the Cardiff festival of contemporary music, for example, or conducting student choirs in public concerts. His other interests included local history and wildlife; he was a stalwart member of the Anglesey branch of the North Wales Wildlife Trust, for whom he acted as cake-baker-in-chief.
It can be said without any hint of unkindness that, after retiring from Bangor University in 2009, David reverted to student life. His time again his own, he was able to research and pursue his interests freely. One offshoot of this was becoming a partner in a micro-publishing business, Cathedral Press; another was his continued work on the Chirk Castle part-books, culminating in a 2009 CD release by the Brabant Ensemble under Stephen Rice.
David is survived by two sons, Andy and John.