Robert Fleming

1921 – 1976

Robert Fleming was a highly regarded composer who wrote prolifically. He wrote music for orchestra, ballet, chamber ensembles and many songs. He also performed on organ and piano and taught at Carleton University.

Fleming’s career has been well documented, with several good sources on his work available online. The following is a brief outline of his career, along with quotes from his letters about his experiences as a young composer. Also included are links to some recordings of his work, some of which are transcription discs of original radio broadcasts.

Early years

Fleming was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and moved as a young boy with his family to Saskatoon. There he studied piano with Lyell Gustin, who was a major influence on many Canadian pianists. At 15, Fleming went to London, England, to study at the Royal College of Music with Hubert Howells (composition) and Arthur Benjamin (piano) from 1937 to 1939. Both were significant mentors to him.

He returned to Canada on a holiday in 1939 but was unable to go back to England because of the outbreak of war. He subsequently taught and toured Saskatchewan, giving piano recitals. He continued studies with Lyell Gustin in the early 1940s and won scholarships in 1941 and 1945 to study at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, where his teachers included Healey Willan.

Fleming taught piano at Upper Canada College in Toronto for a short period before joining the National Film Board in 1946 as a staff composer. He worked there for 24 years, becoming Music Director in 1958. He wrote and conducted scores for more than 200 films.

In 1970, Fleming became an associate professor at Carleton University, a position he held until his death.

Wartime

In his early 20s, Fleming enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Despite the stress of his wartime duties, he composed and circulated several of his compositions. He entered composition competitions and placed well, had encouragement through commissions, and received guidance from prominent musicians in Canada, including Sir Ernest MacMillan. At that time, Canada had recently developed some of its important national cultural institutions, including CBC, the Canadian Performing Rights Society, and the National Film Board.

Reflections on early performances

Fleming’s personal writings about some of his experiences reveal his reflective and modest nature. The following are instances of his recollections of three important performances that took place in his early 20s. Fleming’s comments are reproduced from the Canadian Music Centre’s article Young Composer in Wartime.

Fleming’s Suite for Strings was performed in 1944 by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Benjamin, who had moved from England to Vancouver in 1939 and remained there throughout World War II. The performance was broadcast by CBC and NBC. Fleming wrote to his parents about the circumstances of him hearing this broadcast:

“On tenterhooks all day, hoping and praying that the suite would be playing in the evening…. Benjy and his orchestra made a wonderful job of the string suite. Details were perfect and I learned a lot from the performance.” (Letter to Eric and Gina Fleming, September 21, 1944)

Fleming’s Around the House (1944), for piano and orchestra, was broadcast by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and had its premiere concert performance by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Sir Ernest MacMillan at Massey Hall in March 1944. Macmillan took great interest in Fleming’s work and made many helpful suggestions about some details of the score. Fleming wrote the following about this concert premiere:

“The 20 minutes or so which the Suite took to play, were without a doubt the most awesome and thrilling moments of my life; filled with moments of apprehension, satisfaction, reflection, surprise, and gratitude – a glorious revelation of the fruits of a year’s hard labour, and a realization of what lies ahead for me after the war. It was all tinged with moments of regret, and not a little despair at the barriers separating me from the joy and realization of my fondest ambitions. Time alone will tell my story, and even though the years may pass before the pen is mine to use at will again, the memories of this day will keep my resolutions and hopes high and willing…. I shall always be in Sir Ernest’s debt for this, he did a gigantic job. This was the day that I had dreamed of since early childhood. The audience’s response was spontaneous and overpowering, and I was called up four times. I remember a sea of faces, Sir Ernest waving, the orchestra clapping too….”

Another landmark experience for Fleming was the broadcast of his Bella Bella Sonata (1944) for violin and piano, performed by Kathleen Parlow and Leo Barkin and broadcast by CBC in April 1945. Fleming arranged to listen to the broadcast at a studio at the CBC station at Prince Rupert so he could experience the best reception:

“Reception was perfect, and could not have been better even if I had been sitting beside Miss Parlow in the Studio in Toronto. Oh what a thrill it was to hear my own music coming home to me: and how wonderful it was to hear in actuality what had been, up till those minutes, merely music in my imagination. I thought the interpretation of the work came up to and at times surpassed my own conception. What lovely tone she had, full of depth and personality, and how well she approached and left the little nuances that make any work something more than ordinary. I cannot begin to sum up all the moods that hit me while it was being played….” (Excerpt from a letter to Eric and Gina Fleming, April 16, 1945)

Fleming’s ballet Shadow on the Prairie (1952) was commissioned by the Winnipeg Ballet and filmed by the NFB. Other works that have been frequently performed are his Sonatina for piano (1941) and The Confession Stone (1966), commissioned by Maureen Forrester.

Fleming’s son Berkeley has researched many aspects of his father’s career and has posted his findings on Robert Fleming, Canadian Composer website. He has noted the following as some of his favourite NFB films that feature his father’s music:

Tributes

A “Fleming Retrospective” concert was held for an invited audience at the Studio of the National Arts Centre in December 1976. It had been planned as a festival concert of Fleming’s music but became a memorial event. Among his works performed were The Confession Stone, sung by Maureen Forrester, and instrumental and choral works.

The Canada Council administers the Robert Fleming Prize for exceptionally talented emerging composers from Canada to further their career development. Carleton University’s Professor Robert Fleming Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to one or two students in its music program. Carleton University also established the Robert Fleming Room at its music department. Mount Allison University administers the Robert and Margaret Fleming Prize.

The National Library held an exhibition in 1976-77 as a tribute to Robert Fleming in its rare books room, displaying some of Fleming’s manuscripts, recordings and other items. The Canadian Music Centre published Young Composer in Wartime to commemorate Fleming’s 100th birthday.

At his death, the newsletter of Local 180 referred to Fleming as “one of Canada’s great gifted composer-musicians.” It added that “no one contributed more to the advancement of musical culture than this warmhearted, highly talented gentleman.” Fleming was a member of the Local’s scholarship committee in 1973.

Fleming’s papers are held at Library and Archives Canada.

Interesting links

Historical recordings

Kevin James

Robert Fleming in 1942 or 1943. Source: Canadian Music Centre, Young Composer in Wartime.

Robert Fleming at the piano during his time in the Canadian Air Force, about 1944. Reproduced from The Robert Fleming Fonds.

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