Alec Andrew Templeton was a composer, pianist and satirist.
Background
Templeton was born in Cardiff, Wales, in July 4, 1910. He was the son of Andrew Bryson Templeton and Sarah May Templeton. Although he was blind from birth, Templeton's parents determined to rear their son with two elder daughters as a normal child, and he learned that he was blind at the age of seven from a visitor. At two, Templeton climbed upon the piano bench to imitate church bells that he had heard. He also corrected the wrong notes in his sister's piano practice. By the age of four he had created his first composition, a lullaby.
Realizing Templeton's astonishing precocity, his parents sold their farm and moved to London. They secured introductions to prominent English musicians, all of whom forecast a bright future for Templeton.
Education
He began to study the piano with Margaret Humphrey when he was five, taught by ear and touch, and in his first public performance directed a choir of his playmates while accompanying on the piano. Although he studied braille, he learned the music that he performed in concert by listening to phonograph records.
He enrolled at Worcester College, studying organ under Ivor Atkins and learning the art of improvisation from Henry Walford Davies, later Master of the King's Music.
At fifteen, Templeton was invited to play Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Cardiff Orchestra, and he learned it in four days; at sixteen, he won a piano competition with 8, 000 entrants. After four years at the Royal Academy of Music, he earned the licentiate degree in 1931. He further studied at the Royal College of Music (1932 - 1934), supported by scholarships for composition and piano. He also mastered the violin, organ, and flute, and toured with Henry Wood, Landon Ronald, and Thomas Beecham.
Career
At eleven, he was employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to present a musical program that remained popular with audiences for twelve years. One of Templeton's compositions (he composed by dictating) was awarded a prize by the BBC.
He toured Europe with his father during holidays, learning to speak German, French, Spanish, and Italian fluently. His father encouraged his interest in popular music as an emotional safety valve, providing diversionary mental gymnastics.
Templeton made his American debut in 1935, accompanying the Jack Hylton jazz band in a series of radio broadcasts for the Standard Oil Company. He was an immediate success and decided to remain in the United States. At his first public recital, on March 1, 1936, in Chicago's Orchestra Hall, he performed his humorous improvisations for the first time.
Templeton's New York debut at Town Hall, on January 23, 1938, was praised highly. After several guest appearances on such radio shows as "The Ford Hour" and "The Bing Crosby Show, " he got his own national network radio show, "Alec Templeton Time, " in July 1939. He became a naturalized citizen in 1941. A June 21, 1947, Billboard review said, "Templeton and his writers do a sprightly job on packaging their half-hour stanzas, mixing in straight and comedy piano, both good; and now more or less standard Templeton routines--the operatic takeoff and the ad-libbed medley, based on audience requests. "
Templeton's fame was earned chiefly from two types of parody: ironic improvisation of operatic themes and on-the-spot creation of melodies based on random notes or songs suggested by his audience. "The Shortest Wagnerian Opera" and "Impression of an Old Fashioned Italian Opera" delighted audiences. Among his most popular parodies were "Bach Goes to Town, " "Mozart Matriculates, " "Debussy in Dubuque, " "Grieg's in the Groove, " and "William Do Tell. "
Templeton's tours of North America, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand were phenomenally successful. He appeared with virtually every major symphony orchestra in the United States and was a perennial participant in summer music festivals.