Harry Lawrence Freeman

Harry Lawrence Freeman (born October 9, 1869, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.—died March 24, 1954, New York, New York) was a pioneering African American composer and librettist especially known for his operas. Although he was not the first Black composer to write an opera, he was the first to compose a significant number. Some scholars estimate that he wrote 22, of which 12 were presented to the public. None were published and a few were lost, creating discrepancy between sources about titles and dates. Freeman was also a critic, educator, performer, and conductor.

Early life and operas

Freeman was born in Cleveland to Lemuel Freeman and Agnes Sims-Freeman, the latter of whom is said to have sung beautifully. Her talents were shared with her son, who showed an interest in music at a young age. Though he received no formal training, by the time he was an adolescent, he had become the assistant organist at his family’s church and had organized a vocal quartet. At age 18, he was inspired to begin composing by a production of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser. By 1891 he had moved to Denver, where he had organized the Freeman Grand Opera Company. That same year his first opera, Epthelia, was performed at the Deutsches Theater. It was quickly followed by his second opera, The Martyr, which opened two years later at the same theater. Freeman wrote both the music and the libretti for each work.

Formal education, marriage, and other music from the 1890s

In 1893 Freeman returned to Cleveland, where he studied music theory and composition with Johann Heinrich Beck, a noted composer and the conductor of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Beck praised the young man’s talents, remarking that “Freeman has some of the important qualities of character that made Wagner great. His compositions are wonderfully big in conception, the music faithfully portraying the sentiment of the words.” In 1893 and 1894 productions of The Martyr took place in Chicago and Cleveland, respectively. Despite these successes, Freeman struggled to find work, and from 1895 to 1899 he toured with Ernest Hogan’s Rufus Rastus Company, producers of so-called “race music.” In 1900 Beck conducted the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra in excerpts from Freeman’s operas, honoring the young composer and offering him more visibility. Meanwhile in 1899 Freeman married Charlotte (“Carlotta”) Louise Thomas, a soprano from Charleston, South Carolina, who gave birth to their only child, Valdo Freeman, a year later.

Life in Ohio, Chicago, and New York

Between 1902 and 1904 Freeman was the director of the music program at Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio, where he directed a student performance of his opera African Kraal in 1903. He and his family then moved to Chicago, where he and Carlotta were employed at the newly established Pekin Theatre between 1906 and 1907. It was the first Black-owned theater in Chicago. The Freemans finally settled in New York City in 1908, where Harry Freeman began to fuse opera with jazz, a genre he called “Jazz Opera.”

In subsequent years Freeman became the musical director for the Cole-Johnson Brothers Company and then at the John Larkins Musical Comedy Company. Freeman also founded and conducted the Negro Choral Society. The family’s brownstone in Harlem became a meeting spot for musicians associated with the Harlem Renaissance, including pianist and composer Eubie Blake, contralto singer Marian Anderson, composer and lyricist Noble Sissle, and singer and actress Muriel Rahn. In 1920 the Freemans founded the Negro Grand Opera Company to produce Harry Freeman’s operas and provide opportunities for Black musicians. That same year Freeman also founded the Salem School of Music in Harlem, which he later renamed the Freeman School of Music. He also wrote for such newspapers as the New Amsterdam News and the Afro-American.

Legacy

Freeman wrote a number of operas, including perhaps his most famous, Voodoo. When it opened in New York in 1928, it became the first opera written by an African American to be performed on Broadway. Freeman also wrote other orchestral works and a ballet. In 1930 he won the Harmon Award for significant achievement by an African American in the field of arts and letters. Freeman was also the musical director of and composed the music for “O Sing a New Song,” an event at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair celebrating the African American experience. Perhaps the culmination of his life’s work was the revival of his early opera The Martyr, which he conducted at Carnegie Hall in 1947.