From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Bridge
(born
Brighton
,
26 February
1879
; died
Eastbourne
,
10 January
1941
) was an
English
composer
,
violist
and
conductor
. His music often sounded quite modern to the people of his day. He wrote many excellent works including
chamber music
as well as
orchestral
music. One of his
composition
pupils was
Benjamin Britten
. Later Britten remembered his teacher by using one of Bridge’s tunes and making them into a piece of music called
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
.
Bridge was born in
Brighton
and studied at the
Royal College of Music
in
London
from 1899 to 1903. One of his teachers was
Charles Villiers Stanford
. He played the
viola
in several
string quartets
and
conducted
many orchestras. He learned difficult music very quickly, and sometimes
Henry Wood
asked him to take his place when he was not well enough to conduct himself. After a while he spent most of his time composing. He privately taught several pupils, including
Benjamin Britten
, who later helped to make his teacher's music better known and honoured him in his
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
for
string orchestra
(1937), based on a theme from the second of Bridge's
Three Idylls for String Quartet
(1906).
Bridge died in
Eastbourne
.
Bridge’s early works show the influence of
Johannes Brahms
and
Charles Villiers Stanford
. He wrote some excellent chamber music and songs. The
Phantasie Quartet
and the
String Quartet no 1
show his talent. His later pieces such as the third (1926) and fourth (1937) string quartets have quite complicated
harmonies
and show his interest in the music of
Schoenberg
as well as the harmonies of
Maurice Ravel
and
Alexander Scriabin
. His most important orchestral works include
The Sea
and
Summer
. He wrote some lovely chamber music for the
cello
as well as many songs. In his later years his harmonies become quite advanced, for example a favourite chord of his can be found by playing a C minor chord and a D major chord together. In his longer pieces the speed of the music often changes and he avoids repeating himself exactly.
For a long time after his death his music was hardly ever played, but more recently musicians have discovered the greatness of his compositions.
Pianists
like to play the popular piano piece called
Rosemary
.