> jehosephat% timidity -ikv ~czyz/Axel_f.mid > /dev/audio
> Couldn't open Sun audio device

The obvious question is:
Where the H*** did you get the idea that you were supposed to run it
like that?

By default, timidity outputs directly to the audio device.  If the
device already opened (by the redirection), timidity is obviously
going to lose when it tries to open the device itself.  If you just
do:

% timidity -ikv ~czyz/Axel_f.mid

it should work fine (assuming you have a 16-bit sound card).