Introduction

Biography

Frederick was the son of John Bridge and Re­bec­ca Cox. His fa­ther be­came a vi­car chor­al at Ro­ches­ter Ca­thed­ral in 1850.

Frederick was a cho­ris­ter as a boy. He lat­er played the or­gan at Ro­ches­ter Ca­thed­ral and Man­ches­ter Ca­thed­ral (1869–75), and was de­pu­ty or­gan­ist at West­min­ster Ab­bey (1875–82).

While at West­min­ster Ab­bey, Bridge or­gan­ized the mu­sic for sev­er­al state oc­ca­sions, in­clud­ing the co­ro­na­tions of Ed­ward VII (1902) and George V (1911). He was knight­ed in 1897.

As a teach­er and lec­tur­er, Bridge held posts at the Royal Col­lege of Mu­sic; Gresh­am Col­lege; Ow­ens Col­lege, Man­ches­ter [now Victoria University] (Pro­fess­or of Har­mo­ny, 1872–75); and the Uni­vers­ity of Lon­don.

His stu­dents in­clud­ed com­pos­ers Ar­thur Ben­ja­min and No­el Gay, or­gan­ists Ed­ward Bair­stow and Her­bert Brew­er, con­duc­tor Lan­don Ron­ald, and ear­ly mu­sic pio­neer Ar­nold Dol­metsch.

His pub­lic lec­tures at Gresh­am Col­lege co­vered a wide range of sub­jects and mu­sic­al pe­ri­ods, and at­tract­ed large au­di­enc­es.

For 25 years, Bridge con­duct­ed the Roy­al Chor­al So­ci­ety, with whom he per­formed ma­ny new works, in­clud­ing some of his own com­po­si­tions, and works by Ed­ward El­gar, Vaugh­an Will­iams and Par­ry.