Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge (
February 26,
1879 –
January 10,
1941) was an
English composer.
Bridge was born in
Brighton and studied at the
Royal College of Music in
London from 1899 to 1903 under
Charles Villiers Stanford and others. He played the
viola in a number of
string quartets, most notably the
English String Quartet, and
conducted, sometimes deputising for
Henry Wood, before devoting himself to composition, receiving the patronage of
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. He privately tutored a number of pupils, most famously
Benjamin Britten, who later championed his teacher's music and paid homage to him in the
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), based on a theme from the second of Bridge's
Three Idylls for String Quartet (1906). Bridge died in
Eastbourne.
Among Bridge's works are the orchestral
The Sea (1911),
Oration (1930) for cello and orchestra and the opera
The Christmas Rose (premiered 1932), but he is perhaps most highly regarded today for his
chamber music. His early works are in a late-
Romantic idiom, but later pieces such as the third (1926) and fourth (1937) string quartets are harmonically advanced and very distinctive, showing the influence of the
Second Viennese School. However, his works also show harmonic influences by
Maurice Ravel and especially
Alexander Scriabin.
One of his most characterictic harmonies is the Bridge chord, for instance
C minor and
D major sounding at the same time, very poignant in
There Is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook and the
piano sonata (1922-5). He wrote this work to the memory of
Ernest Farrar.
One of his most famous works is a piece for violin called
Moto perpetuo (written 1900, revised 1911). Other frequently performed works are the
Adagio in E for organ, Rosemary for piano and the
cello sonata in
D minor (1913-7).
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Frank Bridge pages Includes catalog of works, selective discography, biography
