Adagio in E (Three Pieces, No. 2 - 1905)

Frank Bridge (26 February 1879 – 10 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. Without knowing I had "hit it," today is the 139th anniversary of his birth, So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Frank B! :-)

Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others. He played the viola in a number of string quartets, most notably the English String Quartet , and conducted, before devoting himself to composition.

His musical styles when through a continuous transformation. His early works, such as the "Adagio in E" are warm, Edwardian examples, but at other times his writing could be "impressionistic," and still quite dissonant and harsh at others.

Bridge was frustrated that his later works were largely ignored while his earlier "Edwardian" works continued to receive attention.

Although he was not an organist, nor personally associated with music of the English Church, his short pieces for organ have been among the most performed of all his output.

With the exception of the last three pieces published in 1940, I've uploaded ALL of Bridge's organ works, so, you may want to explore those if you like this performance. :-)

The first section appears to show the composer's affinity with writing for strings. It is easy to imagine these passages played by a string quartet.

The music builds continually before reaching a great climax. The work begins to melt down over a long dominant pedal, before the opening material returns. The Gamba of the Positif, played in the tenor register, gets a brief chance before the lovely final cadence with it's effective resolution of G major moving to a final chord of E major, played on the Swell strings with 32' in the pedal.

While the organ does a good job with the music, it's a little "aggressive," prompting me not to go up to full organ at the climax. ;-)

The score is attached below, as well as several photos of Frank Bridge are attached below.