The Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre was a project established to investigate the therapeutic and artistic potential of vocal expression. The Centre was founded by Alfred Wolfsohn in Berlin during 1935 and re-situated in London during 1943, where he and his contemporaries and successors developed principles and practices that provided the foundations for the use of an extended vocal technique. This technique allows vocalists to extend their vocal range and flexibility beyond that usually heard in speech or song.Hart, R., et al., 'An Outline of the Work of the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre', subsequently published in 'The Roy Hart Theatre: Documentation and Interviews', Dartington Theatre Papers, ed. David Williams, Fifth Series, No. 14, pp2–7. Series ed. Peter Hulton. Dartington College of Arts, 1985.Newham, P. 'The Psychology of Voice and the Founding of the Roy Hart Theatre'. New Theatre Quarterly IX No. 33. February 1993 pp59-65.
The Centre inspired, precipitated, and influenced a number of developments within the arts, the expressive therapies, and psychotherapy, including the Roy Hart Theatre, founded by Roy Hart, the psychotherapeutic approach to song, prayer, and guided meditation evolved by Paul Newham, the clinical application of singing and nonverbal vocalization in music therapy and drama therapy, and the use of spontaneous vocal expression in dance movement therapy.Martin, J., Voice in Modern Theatre. London. Routledge 1991.Roose-Evans J., Experimental Theatre: From Stanislavski to Peter Brook. 4th edn. London. Routledge 1989.Sharon Hall, 'An Exploration of the Therapeutic Potential of Song in Dramatherapy'. Dramatherapy Vol. 27 (1) 2005 pp13-18.Barbara Houseman, Voice and the Release and Exploration of Emotion and Thought from a Theatre Perspective. Dramatherapy. Vol. 16. (2–3) 1994 pp25-27.Anne Rust-D'Eye, 'The Sounds of the Self: Voice and Emotion in Dance Movement Therapy'. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy: An International Journal for Theory, Research and Practice Volume 8. (2) 2013 pp95-107.
In addition, the extended vocal technique developed at the Centre has been used by performers in avant garde theatre, experimental music, and postmodern dance including: Eight Songs for a Mad King composed by Peter Maxwell Davies and performed by Roy Hart, Akropolis (1962) directed by Jerzy Grotowski, Orghast (1971) directed by Peter Brook, and House of Bones (1991) by Motionhouse with vocal music composed and performed using extended vocal technique by Paul Newham.Curtin, A., 'Alternative Vocalities: Listening Awry to Peter Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King'. Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. Vol. 42, No. 2. June 2009. pp101-117.Joachim, H., Die Welt. 20 October 1969.Flaszen, L., 'Akropolis – Treatment of the Text.' In Grotowski, J. (ed), Towards a Poor Theatre. London. Simon & Schuster 1970.Smith, A. C. H., 'Orghast at Persepolis. The Complete Review'. London. Viking Adult 1973.Ashley, L., Essential Guide to Dance. 3rd edn. London. Hachette 2012.Gorguin, I., Fifth Festival of Arts. Shiraz-Persepolis. Tehran. Public Relations Bureau of the Festival of Arts. Shiraz-Persepolis 1971.Brook, P., The Shifting Point: Forty Years of Theatrical Exploration. London Methuen 1987.Helfer, R. & Loney, G. M., 'Peter Brook: Oxford to Orghast'. Contemporary Theatre Studies 27. Harwood Academic Publishers 1998.
Phases
The Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre can be divided into six phases, each one characterized by a distinct locus of attention, but all of them emergent from a shared commitment to a common ground. This common ground comprised two elements. Firstly, a commitment to the principles of Analytical Psychology, established by Carl Jung, with particular attention to Active Imagination technique. Secondly, an intention to establish a form of extended vocal technique that would enable vocalists to develop a highly flexible vocal range capable of expressing a broad spectrum of emotions and characters, for both therapeutic and artistic application.Shepard, L., An Empirical Therapy Based on an Extension of Vocal Range and Expression in Singing and Drama. Paper read at the Sixth International Congress of Psychotherapy, London, August 1964. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Leslie Shepard, Dublin, Ireland.Newham, P., The Singing Cure: An Introduction to Voice Movement Therapy. London: Random House 1993 and Boston: Shambhala 1994.Newham, P., 'Jung and Alfred Wolfsohn: Analytical Psychology and the Singing Voice. Journal of Analytical Psychology 37. 1992 pp323-336.
Phase 1: 1935–1939
The first phase of the Centre spans from 1935 t 1939 in Berlin.
In 1914, Alfred Wolfsohn was conscripted to military service, and after discharge became disturbed by auditory hallucinations of vocal sounds that he had heard wounded and dying soldiers make. He was subsequently diagnosed with Shell Shock, and after failing to benefit from psychiatry, hypnosis, and medication, cured himself by vocalizing the extreme sounds he had heard and hallucinated.Newham, P., The Prophet of Song: The Life and Work of Alfred Wolfsohn. London. Tigers Eye Press 1997.
In 1935, Wolfsohn met the opera singer Paula Salomon-Lindberg, who offered him lodging and a job teaching singing to those she described as her less gifted pupils. During this time, Wolfsohn began to develop an approach to vocal pedagogy that his pupils reported to be therapeutic. This phase was characterized by Wolfsohn's experiments, conducted with two student groups. The first comprised those who came for lessons initially intending to improve their professional singing proficiency, but who became increasingly motivated to attend because of the therapeutic benefits they experienced. The second group were those who came originally and entirely for therapeutic purposes, without any intention to sing publicly. Salomon-Lindberg, P., interviewed by Mary Löwenthal Felstiner, Amsterdam, 23–26 March 1984; 15–20 April 1985; 6–8 July 1988; 14 July 1993.Salomon-Lindberg, P., interviewed by Franz Weisz, Amsterdam, 1981. Trans. Franz Weisz. Repository: Franz Weisz Film Research Archives, Amsterdam and Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Paul Newham, London.Salomon-Lindberg, P., interviewed by Paul Newham, Amsterdam, August 1991. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Paul Newham, London.Wolfsohn, A., Orpheus, oder der Weg zu einer Maske. Germany 1936–1938 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.Günther, M., 'The Human Voice'. Paper read at the National Conference on Drama Therapy. Antioch University. San Francisco. November 1986. Repository: Roy Hart Theatre Archives, Malérargues, France. Curated by Marita Günther and the Roy Hart Theatre.
Paula Salomon-Lindberg did not believe that Wolfsohn's techniques were suitable for training professional singers, and criticized his approach. However, she acknowledged that his pupils appeared to find his lessons effective in helping them overcome inhibitions and experience an emotional release that Wolfsohn described as cathartic.Salomon-Lindberg, P., interviewed by Mary Löwenthal Felstiner, Amsterdam, 23–26 March 1984; 15–20 April 1985; 6–8 July 1988; 14 July 1993. Trans. Franz Weisz. Repository: Franz Weisz Film Research Archives, Amsterdam and Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Paul Newham, London.Salomon-Lindberg, P., interviewed by Franz Weisz, Amsterdam, 1981. Trans Franz Weisz. Repository: Franz Weisz Film Research Archives, Amsterdam and Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Paul Newham, London.Salomon-Lindberg, P., interviewed by Paul Newham, Amsterdam, August 1991. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Paul Newham, London.
During this phase Wolfsohn made notes about his experiences during the war, his views about the capacity of the human voice to extend beyond the range commonly heard in speech and song, and the impact of his lessons upon those he taught. These notes evolved in a manuscript called 'Orpheus, oder der Weg zu einer Maske'.Coghlan, B., 'The Human Voice and the Aural Vision of the Soul'. Paper read at the First International Conference on Scientific Aspects of Theatre at Karpacz, Poland, September 1979. Repository: Roy Hart Theatre Archives, Malérargues, France.Cole, E., Commentary. Paper documenting the development of the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre from 1943 – 1953. 1953. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Paul Newham, London.
During the early part of this phase Wolfsohn believed that Sigmund Freud's notion of catharsis was the most appropriate framework within which to situate and by which to explain the therapeutic effects of his teaching. During the second part of this phase, Wolfsohn began to discover the theories of Carl Jung, as he simultaneously grew more confident in his own vocal teaching.Shepard, L., interviewed by Paul Newham, Dublin, 1990. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Paul Newham, London.Günther, M., 'The Human Voice: On Alfred Wolfsohn'. Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture 50. 1990 pp65–75. Consequently, Wolfsohn began to focus less on facilitating in his students an emotional release or catharsis through the voice, and more on helping them give vocal expression to mental imagery, including the characters and animals that they reported encountering in their dreams. Newham, P. Therapeutic Voicework: Principles and Practice for the Use of Singing as a Therapy. London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers 1998.Newham, P. 'Voicework as Therapy: The Artistic use of Vocal Sound to Heal Mind and Body. In S. K. Levine and E. G. Levine (eds) Foundations of Expressive Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives. London. Jessica Kingsley Publishers 1999 pp89 -112.
This pivotal point in the development of the Centre was terminated by the rise of Nazi Germany.Freeden, H., 'A Jewish Theatre under the Swastika'. LBI Yearbook 1. 1956.Schwarz, B., 'The Music World in Migration – The Muses Flee Hitler: Cultural Transfer and Adaptation 1930–1945. Jarrell C. Jackman and Carla M. Borden (eds). Washington D.C. Smithsonian Institution 1983.
Phase 2: 1943–1956
The second phase of the Centre spans from 1943–1956 in London.
In 1939, Wolfsohn escaped Nazi Germany, and re-established his Centre in London during 1943, after receiving permission from the British government to work as a singing teacher. Few of the pupils who attended the Centre during this phase had ambitions to sing professionally or publicly, and almost all of them attended and took singing lessons with Wolfsohn to experience therapeutic benefits. Among such students was Rabbi Lionel Blue whose personal reasons for attending the Centre are emblematic of those that motivated many other attendants:
I knew that there was a whole dimension of me that I had never had an opportunity to express: emotions or feelings, or maybe instincts. I also felt quite inhibited a lot of the time, though I was reasonably good at hiding my shyness. It was as though the 'full me' wanted to break out, and I knew this 'me' was never going to emerge through talking. So when I heard of his [Wolfsohn's] approach to singing, it immediately appealed to me, and though I only went for a short period of time, it helped enormously. It gave me confidence in other areas of my life.Blue, L., 'Interview with Paul Newham'. London October 1996. Cited in 'The Prophet of Song: The Life and Work of Alfred Wolfsohn. Tigers Eye Press. 1997.