Frederick Bridge
Sir John Frederick Bridge CVO (5 December 1844 – 18 March 1924) was an English organist, composer, teacher and writer.
His students included the composers Arthur Benjamin and Noel Gay, the organists Edward Bairstow and Herbert Brewer, the conductor Landon Ronald and the early music pioneer Arnold Dolmetsch.
His public lectures at Gresham College attracted large audiences, and they covered a wide range of subjects and musical periods.
The régime was severe in discipline and rudimentary in curriculum, but among the alumni of the choir school of this period were future organists of four English cathedrals and of Westminster Abbey.
[2] Bridge first participated in a great national commemoration in 1852, when, aged eight, he was allowed to help toll the cathedral bell to mark the death of the Duke of Wellington.
[3] During his time at Windsor, Bridge passed the examination for the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists, in 1867, and took his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Oxford.
The improvement in the services at Manchester Cathedral since Dr. Bridge has held the position of organist, may be regarded as a proof that in the responsible office which he has now accepted he will do his utmost to advance the character of the music in the Abbey; and we sincerely hope that the Dean and Chapter will allow him that unlimited power over the choir which may enable him to raise it to the high state of efficiency which the public has a right to expect.
[6]According to a younger organist, Sir Walter Alcock, Bridge fulfilled those hopes: "He reformed many unsound traditions in the choir, such as life-tenure of posts as vicars-choral and inadequate rehearsal of boys and men together.
[4] According to Guy Warrack and Christopher Kent in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "accounts of his teaching are not complimentary",[4] but he was generally regarded as a highly successful lecturer,[7] and Alcock's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article states, "Because of his persuasive style and apt illustrations, his lectures drew large audiences.
"[1] His pupils at the Royal College and the Abbey included Edward Bairstow, Arthur Benjamin, Herbert Brewer, Arnold Dolmetsch, Noel Gay, Lloyd Powell and Landon Ronald.
[1] When Sir George Grove retired as head of the Royal College at the end of 1894, Bridge, along with Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Walter Parratt and Franklin Taylor, was seen as a strong candidate to succeed him.
[13] Bridge was married three times, first, in 1872, to Constance Ellen Moore (d. 1879); second, in 1883, to Helen Mary Flora Amphlett (d. 1906), and third, in 1914, to Marjory Wedgwood Wood (d. 1929).
Squire, 1888); He giveth his Beloved Sleep (meditation, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1890); The Repentance of Nineveh (oratorio, Joseph Bennett, 1890); The Inchape Rock (ballad, Robert Southey, 1891); The Cradle of Christ: Stabat mater speciosa (canticle, J.M.
[3] Novello, Ewer & Co., London, published vocal scores of The Ballad of "The Clampherdown", Boadicea, Callirhoë, The Cradle of Christ, The Flag of England, Forging the Anchor, The Frogs and the Ox, He giveth his Belovèd Sleep, Hymn to the Creator, The Inchcape Rock, The Lobster's Garden Party, The Lord's Prayer, Mount Moriah, The Repentance of Nineveh, Rock of Ages and The Spider and the Fly.
Autograph manuscripts of Boadicea, The Flag of England, The Frogs and the Ox, God Save the Queen, The Inchcape Rock, Kings shall see and arise, The Lord's Prayer, the Magnificat in G, The Repentance of Nineveh, Rejoice in the Lord and Rock of Ages are held by the Library of the Royal College of Music, London (Add.
In addition to several educational works for Novello & Co, Bridge published two books based on his lectures, Samuel Pepys, Lover of Musicke (1903) and Twelve Good Musicians from John Bull to Henry Purcell (1920), as well as a substantial volume of memoirs, A Westminster Pilgrim (1918).
[4] Reviewing the memoirs, the critic H. C. Colles wrote that the book showed why Bridge was "even more widely loved as a man than he has been respected as a musician.
