Harry Lawrence Freeman facts for kids

Harry Lawrence Freeman

Harry Lawrence Freeman (born October 9, 1869 – died March 24, 1954) was an American neoromantic opera composer, conductor, and teacher. He also worked as an impresario, which means he organized and managed concerts and operas. He was the first African-American to write an opera, called Epthalia (1891), that was successfully performed. Freeman started the Freeman School of Music and the Freeman School of Grand Opera. He also created several opera companies that performed his own music. People sometimes called him "the black Wagner" during his life, comparing him to a famous German composer.

A Look at His Life
List of His Works
His Impact
See also

A Look at His Life

Harry Lawrence Freeman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1869. His parents were Lemuel Freeman and Agnes Silms-Freeman. Harry learned to play the piano and was helping as a church organist by the time he was 10 years old. When he was 18, he saw an opera by Richard Wagner called Tannhäuser. This show inspired him to start writing his own music.

Starting His Career: The Freeman Opera Company

By age 22, Freeman had started his own group, the Freeman Opera Company, in Denver, Colorado. His first opera, Epthelia, was performed in Denver in 1891. His second opera, The Martyr, was first shown at the same theater on August 16, 1893. This opera was also put on by the Freeman Opera Company. It was about an Egyptian nobleman who was killed for accepting a different religion.

The Freeman Opera Company later performed The Martyr in Chicago in October 1893. They also performed it in Cleveland in 1894. This was the first opera in the United States to be produced by a company made up entirely of Black people. While some records might say The Martyr was the first opera by an African-American composer, Epthelia was performed two years earlier. Still, Freeman was a very important pioneer in classical music for the African-American community.

In 1894, Freeman moved back to Cleveland. He began to formally study music theory, which is the study of how music works. His teacher was Johann Heinrich Beck, who conducted the Cleveland Symphony. In 1898, Freeman married Charlotte Loise Thomas, a woman from South Carolina who sang soprano (a high female singing voice). Two years later, Charlotte, also known as Carlotta, gave birth to their son, Valdo. That same year, the Cleveland Orchestra played parts of Freeman's operas. For the next ten years, the family lived in Cleveland, Chicago, and Xenia, Ohio. Freeman was the director of the music program at Wilberforce University in 1902 and 1903.

Moving to Harlem: The Negro Grand Opera Company

Around 1908, the Freeman family moved to Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City. In 1912, the famous ragtime composer Scott Joplin, who also lived in New York, asked Freeman for help. Joplin needed help with his opera, "Treemonisha," which had stopped being produced. We don't know exactly how much Freeman helped.

In 1920, Freeman opened the Salem School of Music in Harlem. It was later renamed the Freeman School of Music. Also in 1920, he started the Negro Grand Opera Company. This company performed many of his own works. Freeman's wife, Carlotta, and his son, Valdo, who was a baritone (a middle-range male singing voice), sang main roles in many of the company's shows.

Besides grand opera, Freeman also wrote music for the stage. He was a music director for vaudeville and musical theater companies in the early 1900s. Vaudeville was a type of entertainment with many different acts, like comedy, music, and dance. These companies included Ernest Hogan's Musical Comedy Company, where Carlotta Freeman was the main singer. He also worked with the Cole-Johnson African-American musical theater company and the John Larkins Musical Comedy Company. He wrote extra music and was the music director for the show Rufus Rastus in 1906. He wrote the music for the musical comedy Captain Rufus in 1907. He was also a guest conductor and music director for a big show called O Sing a New Song at the Chicago World's Fair in 1934.

Voodoo (1928) is probably Freeman's most famous work. It is about the Voodoo culture in Louisiana. Even though Freeman finished writing the opera in 1914, it wasn't performed until 14 years later. On September 10, 1928, it was performed in New York City with an all-Black cast. A concert version of Voodoo was broadcast live on New York radio station WGBS on May 20, 1928. This was one of the first operas by an American composer to be on the radio. It was also the first opera by an African-American to be shown on Broadway (New York's famous theater district). The music for Voodoo mixes sounds from spirituals, Southern folk songs, jazz, and traditional Italian opera.

Freeman received the important Harmon Foundation Award in 1930 for his achievements in music.

In 1930, at Steinway Hall in New York, Freeman played the piano for a performance of parts from his operas. These included The Martyr, The Prophecy, The Octoroon, Plantation, Vendetta, and Voodoo.

Later Years and Legacy

Harry Lawrence Freeman died from a heart problem at his home in New York City on March 24, 1954. His wife Carlotta passed away just three months later. The last 20 years of his life were difficult because he struggled to get his works performed. Most of his music was not published when he died. Also, no commercial recordings of his work have ever been released.

However, 21 of his operas and many other works still exist in his own handwritten notes, called manuscripts. These important papers are kept in a collection at Columbia University.

List of His Works

Freeman wrote at least 23 operas. Many of them, including a huge series of four operas called Zululand that filled over 2,000 pages of music, were never performed. Besides writing the music, Freeman also wrote his own librettos (the words or story) for almost all of his operas.

Here are some of Freeman's works for the stage:

Epthalia, opera (1891, Denver)
The Martyr, opera in two acts (August 16, 1893, Denver)
Nada, opera in three acts (1898; never performed)
Zuluki (a new version of Nada) (parts performed in Cleveland in 1900)
An African Kraal, opera in one act (1903; student show at Wilberforce University)
The Octoroon, opera in four acts (1904; never performed)
Valdo, opera in one act (May 1906, Cleveland)
Captain Rufus, musical comedy (August 12, 1907, New York City)
The Tryst, opera in one act (May 1911)
The Prophecy, opera in one act (1911; never performed)
The Plantation, opera in three or four acts (1915; performed at Carnegie Hall 1930)
Athalia, opera in three acts (1916; never performed)
Vendetta, opera in three acts (November 12, 1923, Harlem)
American Romance, jazz opera (1927)
Voodoo, opera in three acts (composed around 1914; first performed on radio May 20, 1928, and on stage September 10, 1928)
Leah Kleschna. Opera based on a play (1931; never performed)
Allah, opera, based on H. Rider Haggard's novels (1947)
The Zulu King, opera, based on H. Rider Haggard's novels (1934)
The Slave, symphonic poem (1932)
Uzziah (1931)
Zululand, a four-opera series based on H. Rider Haggard's novel Nada, the Lily (1941-1944). The operas are Chaka, The Ghost-Wolves, The Stone-Witch, and Umslopogaas and Nada. None were performed.

Freeman also published many popular songs, including his own versions of spirituals. He wrote some music for concert halls, such as:

The Loves of Pompeii, a song cycle (a group of songs meant to be sung together)
My Son, a cantata (a piece of music for voices and instruments)
The Slave, a symphonic poem (a piece of orchestral music that tells a story)
Salome, a ballet with chorus (a dance performance with singing)
"Coleville Coon Cadets," a marching song

His Impact

Even though many of Freeman's works were successful during his lifetime, they are not often played today. He achieved many "firsts" for Black Americans in classical and popular music. While other African-Americans composed operas earlier, it seems none were fully performed before Freeman's Epithalia in 1891.

Freeman started and played important roles in several African-American opera companies and arts groups. This included the Pekin Stock Company in Chicago. This was one of the first "legitimate" theaters (meaning it showed serious plays, not just variety acts) in the U.S. that was owned and run by African-Americans. Freeman was a close friend of the famous Ragtime musician Scott Joplin. He also knew many African-American musicians and artists who were part of the Harlem Renaissance, a time of great artistic and cultural growth in the Black community in Harlem.