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).