Frederick Bridge

Sir John Frederick Bridge CVO (5 December 1844 – 18 March 1924) was an English organist, composer, teacher and writer.

From a musical family, Bridge became a church organist before he was 20, and he achieved his ambition to become a cathedral organist by the age of 24, at Manchester Cathedral. After six years there, he was invited to become organist at Westminster Abbey, where he remained for the rest of his career. He instituted several changes to modernise and improve the music-making at the Abbey and organised the music for several state occasions, including two coronations.

As a teacher and lecturer, Bridge held posts at the Royal College of Music, Gresham College and the University of London. 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.

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

Bridge was born in Oldbury, then in Worcestershire, in central England, the eldest son of John Bridge and his wife, Rebecca née Cox. In 1850, his father was appointed a vicar-choral of Rochester Cathedral. Young Bridge was admitted to the cathedral choir as a "practising boy" (that is, a probationer). The choirboys were educated by another of the vicars-choral. 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. They included Bridge's younger brother Joseph, who eventually became organist of Chester Cathedral.

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