Biography
Quentin Maclean earned widespread affection as a mid-20th-century organist active in both churches and theaters, balancing a career that combined live performance, recordings across popular and classical repertoires, original composition, and instruction. Born in London in 1896 as Quentin Stuart Morvaren Maclean, he was the son of composer and conductor Alexander Morvaren, known as Alick (1872-1936), who wrote oratorios and operas—one titled Quentin Durward—and spent many years leading ensembles before enthusiastic audiences. His training took place across England and mainland Europe, notably in Leipzig under Karl Straube and Max Reger, until the First World War brought internment as an enemy alien. Following release at the close of hostilities, he returned to Westminster Cathedral as assistant organist to his earlier mentor, Sir Richard Terry.
Wider recognition arrived in the early 1920s when he joined journalist and broadcaster Lowell Thomas on a circuit of British theaters, supplying live organ accompaniment for the lecture and film presentation With Allenby in Palestine, whose subject later reached screens again in Lawrence of Arabia. Demand for his popular style soon grew, leading to steady theater-organ engagements at cinemas throughout Britain from 1921 to 1939. Beginning in 1925 he also became a regular BBC presence, airing large quantities of light-classical works and giving the first British hearings of organ concertos by Paul Hindemith and himself. Even after synchronized sound ended most live theater music, Maclean’s playing kept him in demand; major houses still featured organ solos between features, and he regularly performed before crowds numbering in the hundreds or thousands. During the 1920s and 1930s he produced many 78 rpm discs for Columbia and other EMI-affiliated labels, among them an organ transcription of “Rhapsody in Blue” and such standards as “Body and Soul,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes,” “Watching My Dreams Go By,” “Miner’s Dream of Home,” “Just a Wee Deoch and Doris,” plus medleys including “Parade of the Tin Soldiers”/“The Mosquitos Parade”/“My Love Parade.” Widely admired among his peers, he counted future organist, conductor, and composer Sidney Torch among his students. After an extended tenure at the Regal Cinema, Marble Arch—home to one of England’s largest theater organs—he designed the enormous Wurlitzer Cinema Pipe Organ installed at the new Gaumont State Theatre in Kilburn, then the country’s largest picture palace.
In 1939 Maclean moved to Canada, where he continued theater performances through the 1940s while maintaining academic and church positions and becoming a familiar CBC broadcaster, especially on children’s programs. He also committed numerous light-classical organ pieces to disc and produced an extensive catalog of original works spanning many idioms.
Wider recognition arrived in the early 1920s when he joined journalist and broadcaster Lowell Thomas on a circuit of British theaters, supplying live organ accompaniment for the lecture and film presentation With Allenby in Palestine, whose subject later reached screens again in Lawrence of Arabia. Demand for his popular style soon grew, leading to steady theater-organ engagements at cinemas throughout Britain from 1921 to 1939. Beginning in 1925 he also became a regular BBC presence, airing large quantities of light-classical works and giving the first British hearings of organ concertos by Paul Hindemith and himself. Even after synchronized sound ended most live theater music, Maclean’s playing kept him in demand; major houses still featured organ solos between features, and he regularly performed before crowds numbering in the hundreds or thousands. During the 1920s and 1930s he produced many 78 rpm discs for Columbia and other EMI-affiliated labels, among them an organ transcription of “Rhapsody in Blue” and such standards as “Body and Soul,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes,” “Watching My Dreams Go By,” “Miner’s Dream of Home,” “Just a Wee Deoch and Doris,” plus medleys including “Parade of the Tin Soldiers”/“The Mosquitos Parade”/“My Love Parade.” Widely admired among his peers, he counted future organist, conductor, and composer Sidney Torch among his students. After an extended tenure at the Regal Cinema, Marble Arch—home to one of England’s largest theater organs—he designed the enormous Wurlitzer Cinema Pipe Organ installed at the new Gaumont State Theatre in Kilburn, then the country’s largest picture palace.
In 1939 Maclean moved to Canada, where he continued theater performances through the 1940s while maintaining academic and church positions and becoming a familiar CBC broadcaster, especially on children’s programs. He also committed numerous light-classical organ pieces to disc and produced an extensive catalog of original works spanning many idioms.