Frank Bridge

Sitter in 6 portraits
A distinguished string player and conductor, Bridge made his name as a composer with works including The Sea and String Sextet (both 1912). He was a pacifist who was deeply anguished by the First World War. Many of his friends and colleagues were killed in action, including the composer Ernest Farrar, to whom he dedicated his Piano Sonata (1921-4). Lament (for Catherine, aged 9, 'Lusitania' 1915) (1915) was composed in memory of a girl drowned when the passenger ship Lusitania was sunk by a German military submarine. Bridge wrote Three Improvisations for the Left Hand (1918) for the pianist Douglas Fox, who had lost his right arm in battle. From 1922, the patronage of American millionaire Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge enabled him to concentrate entirely on composition. Chiefly renowned for his chamber music, notable works from this period include his third and fourth string quartets. Bridge taught composition to Benjamin Britten who later championed his music.