Item 044 - It Was a Lover : Part-Song for S.A.T.B.

British organist Joseph Bridge, born in Rochester in Kent, was the second son in his family to follow a career as an organist. His was a distinguished career although he was not knighted like his older brother Frederick, organist at Westminster Abbey. When his older brother Frederick began as the organist at Manchester Cathedral, Joseph became his assistant in 1869. He had already studied with John Hopkins, the organist at Rochester Cathedral where his father was vicar choral. In 1876-1877 Joseph was an organ scholar at Exeter College at Oxford University. He then became organist for the Chester Cathedral, a post he held until 1925. In addition to his duties as organist, he was a professor of music at Durham University, composed for the organ, lectured on historical topics, and was active in many music-oriented organizations such as the Friends of the Musicians Chapel at St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate across from the Old Bailey; his name is inscribed in the Remembrance book there, along with Britain’s most noteworthy organists. In 1883 he founded the Chester Orchestral Society whose orchestra he conducted and for which he organized a performance of the Messiah with well-known soloists in 1884. He wrote several historical articles for the Journal of the Chester Archaeological and Historical Society and for the Journal of the Royal Musical Association. In 1928 he was President of the British Musicological Association.