The fonds comprises records concerning Harry Freedman's activities as a composer: biographical notes; diaries; correspondence (Glenn Gould, Toru Takemitsu, Harry Somers, Bruce Mather, Gerry Mulligan, Arthur Campbell, Glenn Halls, Anne Marie Monaco, Malcolm Forsyth, Christopher Ondaatje, Henri Bok, Mordecai Richler, Brian MacDonald, Mavor Moore, Seiji Ozawa, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Ontario College of Art, etc.); manuscripts and copies of compositions by Freedman including, among others, works for stage (opera Abracadabra, ballet Rose Latulippe), for film, TV and theatre (The Pyx, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Much Ado About Nothing, etc.) and for orchestra (Tangents, Graphic VI: Town, etc.); contracts and royalty statements; files pertaining to the Canadian League of composers, Canadian Music Centre, Ten Centuries Concerts, etc.; concert programmes; writings; certificates and honours; press clippings; photographs of Freedman and various artists such as Toru Takemitsu, Seiji Ozawa, Sir John Barbirolli, Hunter Johnson, Helen Thigpen, Gerry Mulligan, Ray Brown and Sir Thomas Beecham; drawing of a character from the ballet Rose Latulippe; caricature of Harry Freedman; sound recordings of works, arrangements, and a performance by Freedman; video recording of an interview.
Freedman, Harry, 1922-2005 : Harry Freedman was born in Poland and at the age of three moved with his family to Medicine Hat, Alberta, later relocating to Winnipeg. From an early age he showed a talent for the visual arts, and at age 13 he enrolled in the Winnipeg School of Art. A strong interest in jazz led him to begin studies on the clarinet at age 18. Following wartime service in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Freedman completed his musical studies in composition and oboe at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto. In 1946 Freedman accepted a position as an English horn player in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), a position which he held until 1971. A student of Weinzweig, Messiaen and Copland, Harry Freedman worked as a composer from 1945 onward, and on a full-time basis after leaving the TSO. In 1951 he married the soprano Mary Morrison. Freedman's interest in the visual arts was evident in his musical compositions, among which are several works inspired by Canadian and Japanese visual artists. Paintings from Lawren Harris, Kazuo Nakamura and Jean-Paul Riopelle inspired his Images for orchestra (1958). In the same way, the orchestral work Graphic VI: Town (1986) includes in its title the name of Harold Town, the painter who inspired it. The Freedman catalogue contains some two hundred works, several of which are intended for theatre (the opera Abracadabra), film (the cantata The Flame Within for Paul Almond's film Act Of The Heart), and television (Pale Horse, Pale Rider). Freedman's scores for ballet also grew out of his interest in the visual world, for example Rose Latulippe (Stratford Festival, 1966) and the The Shining People of Leonard Cohen (Paris, 1970). As an educator, Freedman taught each summer from 1972 to 1981 at the Courtenay Youth Music Centre. As a promoter of modern music, he was a founding member of the Canadian League of Composers, and served as its first secretary and as president during 1975-1978. In 1980, the Canadian Music Council designated him as composer of the year. In 1984, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. Freedman was an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, which honoured him in 2002 by issuing a Freedman recording as part of its series Canadian Composers Portraits.
