Scope and arrangement
The Michael Friedman papers, dating from 1980 to 2018, strongly document the composer's career and development, mainly from the late 1980s to his death in 2017. Friedman's life and work is revealed through project files, notes, scores, lyrics, letters, school papers, business records, programs, clippings, photographs, and sound and video recordings. Posthumous content was contributed by Friedman's sister, Marion Young.
The collection is in two series: Personal and Professional Files, and Sound and Video Recordings.
Series I: Personal and Professional Files evidences Friedman's schooling and career development through project files, scores, letters, business records, clippings, programs, and photographs. Works with substantial documentation include The Abominables, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Fortress Of Solitude, Pretty Filthy, Post Office, Saved, and This Beautiful City.
Series II: Sound and Video Recordings documents Friedman's compositions and theatrical work from his high school years through late in his life. The series includes work on The Fortress of Solitude, Gone Missing, In the Bubble, Paris Commune, The Stranger: A Musical, and This Beautiful City.
The Michael Friedman papers are arranged in two series:
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1980-2018
Series I: Personal and Professional Files illustrates Friedman's life and work through Project Files; Notes and Notebooks; Instrumental Compositions; Letters and Cards; School Papers; Business Records; Clippings and Programs; Photographs; and Writings.
The Project Files, which are arranged alphabetically, comprise the bulk of the series. They document Friedman's work and activities, mainly musicals and plays, but also including songbook projects, work for film, his teaching at Princeton University, and a presentation at TEDx. The files may contain scripts, scores (mostly lead sheets but with some more detailed full scores and parts), lyrics, production information, contact sheets (lists of people who worked on productions), invoices, clippings, letters, contracts, photographs, audio recordings, and in some cases, interview transcripts from which lyrics were derived. Notes and business records in this series also contain project-related material. See Series II for audio and video documentation of some of these projects.
Musical works by Friedman with substantial material here include The Abominables, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Brand New Kid, The Essential Alice In Wonderland, The Fortress Of Solitude, Gone Missing (A Show About Things Lost and Found), The Great Immensity, Here's Hoover! The Historic Herbert Hoover 2014 Comeback Special, (I Am) Nobody's Lunch, In The Bubble, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Paris Commune, Post Office, Pretty Filthy, Saved, This Beautiful City, and Unknown Soldier. Also present is work in progress on the unfinished musicals All The President's Men and King of Kong.
Friedman's work on music for plays (as either composer or musical director, or both) here include Angels In America, The Blue Demon, The Cherry Orchard, The Clean House, Cyrano de Bergerac, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad Of Armless Johnny, The House of Blue Leaves, In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, The Loyal Opposition, Lysistrata, The Rose Tattoo, The Seagull, Three Sisters, The Water's Edge, and Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and The Winter's Tale.
Also in the Project Files is Friedman's 2016 election-themed song cycle State of the Union Songbook, songs from which were broadcast on WNYC radio. Files for that project, like some others Friedman worked on in this series, contain interview recordings and transcripts from which lyrics were derived. The files also hold material for unidentified projects, and a large set of backup files of scores which may or may not duplicate other scores in the series. Friedman's files regarding his 2007 Anschutz Fellowship at Princeton University, for which he taught a course on theater writing, comprise a syllabus and student project proposals and assignments.
Notes are comprised of lyrics, meeting notes, plot ideas, rehearsal notes, performance notes, occasional journal entries, and contact lists. Among the projects discussed in the notes are Pretty Filthy (2010), The Tempest (2015), The Fortress Of Solitude (2014), This Beautiful City (2007-2008), and the City Center Encores presentation of Assassins (2017). Friedman used a few notebooks from the last few months of his life while he was in hospital. One (found with his memorial program in box 11, folder 2) outlines what he wanted for his memorial service.
The Compositions (primarily instrumental) date mostly from Friedman's student days (1980s to 1990s). These include two string quartets, an oboe quintet, a choir work, and a piece for brass. There are also folders of sketches and song ideas which date over a much longer period (1980s to 2017), and a collection of sheet music compiled by Friedman. Scores for Friedman's work in theater are in the Project Files. Letters and Cards consist primarily of brief congratulatory notes or greeting cards from friends and colleagues. There is also a set of printed emails from Friedman to his friend, the writer Rebecca Traister, written while he was working at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the summer of 1999.
School Papers contain writings, drawings, and programs from Friedman's days at the Germantown Friends School, the Kinhaven Music School, and Harvard University. The Harvard file contains many programs for events and performances featuring Friedman as composer, performer, or both.
Business Records include a file on The Civilians, including their by-laws; information on Friedman's compositions; contact sheets for various productions; invoices and contracts between Friedman, his co-creators, producers, and presenters; financial records; files on grants and awards Friedman applied for or was awarded; and resumes and biographies. The file on grants and awards hold applications, career statements, project proposals, and course ideas.
The Clippings and Programs file is small and does not represent a comprehensive set of publicity or documentation of Friedman's career. It does, however, contain a review and articles Friedman wrote for the London Review of Books (2005), Contemporary Theatre Review (2006), and Harvard Magazine (2013). It also holds Friedman's memorial program.
The Photographs include production shots of In The Bubble, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and Marate/Sade; a photo of Friedman with his colleague Steven Cosson; a photo of students from the Kinhaven Music School from around 1989; and many personal photographs of Friedman and his friends and colleagues at social events and weddings. There is also a file of photographs taken during a trip to Panama which served as inspiration for The Great Immensity, and photos taken during a workshop at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab. Photographs can also be found in the Project Files.
The Writings contains Friedman's notes on various theater topics; his review of Raymond Knapp's book The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity; and Friedman's interview with Richard Peaslee.
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1982-2017
The sound and video recordings strongly represent Friedman's work as a composer and lyricist. They contain works-in-progress, demos, and, in some cases, complete recordings of musicals, a few of which were never completed. The recordings are in are in six divisions, each arranged alphabetically: Projects, Work Recordings, Demos, School Performances, Other Recordings, and Mix Tapes and CDs. Some audio recordings can also be found in the Project Files in Series I.
Projects document Friedman's work and works-in-progress. It is in the following divisions: Musicals, plays, films, television, songbook performances, and unidentified projects. The project recordings include song or instrumental demos; readings; rehearsals; performance audio and/or video; and cast recordings or recording sessions.
Musicals documented here include The Abominables (one of Friedman's final completed works), The Essential Alice In Wonderland, The Fortress of Solitude, God Hates the Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Gone Missing (A Show About Things Lost and Found), In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards, In the Bubble, King of Kong, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge, Paris Commune, Pretty Filthy, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Making Whoopie, The Stranger: A Musical, This Beautiful City; and Unknown Soldier.
More of Friedman's musical material can be heard in the recording of an American Songbook concert he performed at Lincoln Center in 2010. There are also informal recordings of material from his research project American Pop: 1846-1923: A Songbook.
Recordings of incidental music for plays with Friedman as music director and/or composer include Bloody Poetry, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, Fully Committed, Misery, Mother Courage and Her Children, Romeo and Juliet, and The Taming of the Shrew, among others. Film and television productions with music by Friedman here include Affair Game, Coach, Emile Norman: By His Own Design, and Floaters.
The Demos and Work Recordings contain instrumental ideas (performed on piano, or digital realizations from notation software); recordings of Friedman instrumental compositions; and songs-in-progress, sung by Friedman or unidentified others.
The school performances date from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. The recordings at the Kinhaven School include early compositional work, and Friedman performing on cello with chamber groups and orchestras. The Germantown Friends recordings feature Friedman mainly as a vocalist, including his work with De Functorum, a boys' doo-wop style group, for which he may have arranged songs; and his appearance in the school's 1993 production of Godspell. The Harvard recordings include video of a performance of the Edward Albee play The Zoo Story, directed by Friedman, as well as a performance of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum.
Other recordings contain songs or instrumental music not linked to a particular project, or possibly by other composers. Also present is the work of Betty Comden and Adolph Green (an audio recording of a performance); Meredith Monk (a video of her opera Specimen Days); and Elizabeth Swados (a Christmas holiday album).
Friedman compiled several mix tapes or CDs of released material by rock bands, dance songs, French songs, and other material. Recordings for which all or most of the material is identified are not available for listening, but their content is in the container list below for reference purposes.