What is Frank Bridge?
'''Frank Bridge''' (born [[Brighton]], 26 February 1879; died [[Eastbourne]], 10 January 1941) was an [[England|English]] [[composer]], [[viola|violist]] and [[conducting|conductor]]. His music often sounded quite modern to the people of his day. He wrote many excellent works including [[chamber music]] as well as [[orchestra]]l music. One of his [[Composition (music)|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''. ==Life== 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 quartet]]s and [[conducting|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 instrument|string orchestra]] (1937), based on a theme from the second of Bridge's ''Three Idylls for String Quartet'' (1906). Bridge died in [[Eastbourne]]. ==Music== 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 [[harmony|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