From a musical family was a chor­is­ter as a boy. He went on to serve as or­gan­ist at Ro­ches­ter Ca­thed­ral; Man­che­ster Ca­thed­ral (1869-75); and dep­ut­y or­gan­ist at West­min­ster Ab­bey (1875-82). At West­min­ster Ab­bey, Bridges or­ga­nized the mu­sic for sev­er­al state oc­ca­sions, in­clud­ing two cor­o­na­tions. He was knight­ed in 1897.

As a teach­er and lec­tur­er, Bridge held posts at the Roy­al Col­lege of Mu­sic; Gresh­am Col­lege; Owens Coll­ege, Man­ches­ter (Pro­fess­or of Har­mo­ny, 1872-5); and the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Lon­don. His stu­dents in­clud­ed com­pos­ers Ar­thur Ben­ja­min and No­el Gay, or­gan­ists Ed­ward Bair­stow and Her­bert Brew­er, con­duct­or Lan­don Ron­ald, and ear­ly mu­sic pi­o­neer Ar­nold Dol­metsch. His pub­lic lec­tures at Gresh­am Col­lege co­vered a wide range of sub­jects and mu­sic­al per­i­ods, and at­tract­ed large au­di­enc­es.

For 25 years, Bridge was con­duct­or of the Roy­al Chor­al So­ci­e­ty, with whom he per­formed ma­ny new works, in­clud­ing some of his own com­po­si­tions, and works by com­pos­ers El­gar, Vaugh­an Willi­ams and Par­ry.

• Frost, p. 665
• Nutter, p. 454

1. Conquest
2. God Made Me
3. Old 23rd
4. Olney (Gou­nod)
5. St. Bea­trice