Matthew's Journal

Frank Bridge, my old recorder teacher, died recently, at the age of 58. On the basis of available evidence, it seems likely that he committed suicide, worried that his memory was failing.

Frank introduced me to music, at a very young age - he was the man my parents hired to teach me the recorder. I remember well the evenings with "Mr Brown", as I used to call him, learning the recorder. It was at his instigation that I started getting piano lessons, to improve my ear (which is now pretty damn good, IMO). I've done a lot musically, and got an awful lot out of music in my life, and in the end I owe a lot of that to him - if he'd not inspired me to play, then I'd have never done many of the things I've enjoyed the most over the years.

It's difficult to describe how much that means to me, and why I feel so sad about the death of a man I've not seen for years.I feel I owe a lot to Frank, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too.I love music, and playing music has enabled me to do great things, and has given me memories I will treasure for ever. A lot of that is down to him.

I can only record my deepest condolences to his widow and children

Requiem aeternam dona defunctis, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Well, I'm around this evening, and hopefully a few people will turn up for a little party-let. We'll have to see :)

I'll winge about my going away tommorow, since it's no longer happening until monday morning very early.