Elizabeth Stirling

Elizabeth Stirling - spousal name Elizabeth Bridge - (26 February 1819 – 25 March 1895) was an English organist and composer.

Biography Elizabeth Stirling was born in Greenwich, London, into an affluent family. She attended the Royal Academy of Music as a private student (women could not enroll.) There she studied piano and organ at with Edward Holmes and W. B. Wilson, and harmony with James Alexander Hamilton and Sir George Macfarren.

At the start of the century, young women were encouraged to play the piano as a social grace. By 1820, with London's rapid growth, most churches had organs, but skilled pianists were needed. The church became a place where women could earn a small income and still be respected working outside the home. Of the hundreds of female organists in England, Elizabeth Stirling’s name appeared frequently, but her activities were not unique. Ann Mounsey Bartholomew, Elizabeth Mounsey, Oliveria Prescott, Kate Loder, Kate Westrop, Elizabeth Chamberlayne, Eliza Wesley, Ann Stainer and many others were mentioned by name. They wrote organ voluntaries, interludes, choral anthems, and occasionally large works such as cantatas.

“England’s nineteenth-century female organists endeavored to do God’s business in a conservative patriarchal institution that sought to exclude them from prominent musical roles for reasons having less to do with religion than with social impropriety and a desire to keep women out of what was considered man’s professional sphere.”

When Elizabeth was 16 years old her father’s business failed, and she was suddenly forced to earn a living. She did so with her musical skills and became a respected recitalist, church organist, accompanist for a large community chorus, and successful composer of both organ and choral music. In 1839 Stirling took a position as organist at All Saints Church, Poplar, where she remained until 1858. In that year, she successfully competed for the post of organist at St Andrew Undershaft, a position she filled until 1880.

As an organist, Elizabeth Stirling was noted for her exceptional pedal playing. She published two grand voluntaries, six pedal fugues, eight slow movements and other organ-pieces, over fifty songs and duets, and arrangements of the works of Bach, Mozart and Handel.

In 1863, she married Frederick Albert Bridge ('F.A. Bridge')

Discrimination In 1856 Stirling applied for a degree from Oxford University and submitted the required choral composition, only identified by her initials. Her Psalm 130, for five voices and orchestra, was approved, but when the examiners found out she was a woman, they refused the degree on account of her sex. SATB The Forester, SATB, piano Back From the Brink, SATB, piano Sleeping, Why Now Sleeping, TTBB, piano

Organ Moderato and Maestoso Romantic Pieces for Organ Six Pedal Fugues for Organ On English Psalm Tunes Two Grand Voluntaries (Novello) Soft Voluntary