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Alfred Wolfsohn (23 September 1896 – 5 February 1962) was a German singing teacher who suffered persistent auditory hallucination of screaming soldiers, whom he had witnessed dying of wounds while serving as a stretcher bearer in the trenches of World War I.〔Wolfsohn, A., ''Die Brücke''. London 1947 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther and Sheila Braggins. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.〕〔Wolfsohn, A., ''Orpheus, oder der Weg zu einer Maske''. Germany 1936–1938 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.〕 After being subsequently diagnosed with Shell Shock, Wolfsohn failed to recover in response to hospitalization or psychiatric treatment, but cured himself by vocalizing extreme sounds, bringing about what he described as a combination of catharsis and exorcism.〔Newham, P. ''The Prophet of Song: The Life and Work of Alfred Wolfsohn''. London 1997. Tigers Eye Press.〕 Inspired by the range and expressiveness of his voice, which resulted from the vocal exercises and techniques he developed in an attempt to heal the symptoms of trauma sustained during the war, Wolfsohn began teaching others, acting as both a singing teacher and psychotherapist, seeking to combine the principles of both disciplines.〔Newham, P. 'The psychology of voice and the founding of the Roy Hart Theatre'. New Theatre Quarterly IX No. 33. February 1993 pp59-65.〕 Wolfsohn had no formal training in either field, but nonetheless became a critic of traditional vocal pedagogy and an advocate for the principles of Analytical Psychology developed by Carl Jung.〔Günther, M., 'The Human Voice: On Alfred Wolfsohn'. Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture 50. 1990 pp65–75.〕 Wolfsohn began his teaching in Berlin, whilst lodging with the opera singer Paula Salomon-Lindberg where he developed a close mentoring relationship with the painter Charlotte Salomon, who depicted her mentor many times in paintings, assigning to him the name ''Amadeus Daberlohn''.〔Löwenthal Felstiner, M., To Paint her Life: Charlotte Salomon in the Nazi Mirror. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.〕〔Salomon, C., Charlotte: Life or Theatre, ed. U.G. Schwartz with a preface by Judith C. E. Belinfante and an introduction by Judith Herzberg. London: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1981.〕 After escaping Nazi Germany, Wolfsohn came to London and established the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre in a large house in Golders Green, offering an approach to singing lessons and voice training based solely upon his self-devised techniques.〔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.〕 The aim of his lessons was to help students extend the range and expressiveness of their voice to include every possible vocal sound, which he believed both represented and precipitated the realization of increased human potential in other areas of life.〔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.〕 Wolfsohn subscribed to the views of Carl Jung, who proposed that each human psyche comprises a composite of subpersonalities that appear most vividly in dreams. Wolfsohn sought to enable the expression of these subpersonalities through distinct vocal sounds. 〔Stevens, A., On Jung. London and New York: Routledge, 1990.〕〔Newham, P. (1990) 'The voice and the shadow'. Performance 60, Spring 1990, pp. 37-47.〕〔Newham, P. (1992) 'Jung and Alfred Wolfsohn: analytical psychology and the singing voice.' Journal of Analytical Psychology, 37, pp.323-336.〕 A number of notable authors, theatre directors, philosophers, and scientists took lessons with Wolfsohn, or observed demonstrations by his students, subsequently acknowledging his contribution to their work, including Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, R. D. Laing, Irene Worth, Jean-Louis Barrault, Aldous Huxley, and Julian Huxley.〔Wolfsohn, A., Letters to Aldous Huxley. April - July 1958. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Leslie Shepard, Dublin, Ireland.〕〔Huxley, J., Letter to Alfred Wolfsohn. 14 November 1958. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Leslie Shepard, Dublin, Ireland.〕 When Wolfsohn died in 1962, the group of long-standing students divided. One group continued to train their voices under the leadership of Roy Hart, a South African actor and regular attendant of the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre since 1947, who extended the vocal demonstrations for invited audiences, instigated by Wolfsohn, into full public performances, including ''Eight Songs for a Mad King'', composed especially for Hart by Peter Maxwell-Davies. This group left the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre in Golders Green in 1969, migrated to new premises in Hampstead, and formed a performing arts troupe, assuming the name the Roy Hart Theatre, which included some who like Hart had studied with Alfred Wolfsohn, and others who had never met the German teacher, but had been students in Hart's drama classes, which the South African actor began teaching at venues across London during the late 1950s. In 1974 the Roy Hart Theatre moved to the South of France to establish a permanent rehearsal studio, school, and drama troupe. Roy Hart died in a car accident a year later, but the French-based group of remaining members continued producing experimental theatre and music productions and teaching the approach to vocal expression initially established by Wolfsohn. The other group, including vocalist Jenny Johnson and film maker, author, and archivist Leslie Shepard, dispersed and sought to continue the work of the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre. Alfred Wolfsohn was instrumental in precipitating and inspiring many types of extended vocal technique used by performing artists who incorporate into their performances sounds not usually used in speech or song. In addition, Wolfsohn was a major influence on the therapeutic and creative work of Paul Newham, Wolfsohn's official biographer who together with Leslie Shepard re-established the London base for the Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre in 1990. ==Childhood== Alfred Wolfsohn was born in Berlin into a German Jewish family. In his unpublished manuscripts, Wolfsohn repeatedly describes himself as an exceptionally detached child, an outsider, and an observer, and he attributes this experience to being one of few Jewish children at school.〔Wolfsohn, A., ''Die Brücke''. London 1947 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther and Sheila Braggins. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.〕〔Wolfsohn, A., Letters to Aldous Huxley. April - July 1958. Repository: Alfred Wolfsohn Voice Research Centre Archives. Curated by Leslie Shepard, Dublin, Ireland.〕〔Wolfsohn, A., ''Orpheus, oder der Weg zu einer Maske''. Germany 1936–1938 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.〕〔Wolfsohn, A., ''The Biography of an Idea''. London 1943 - 1960. (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther. Repository: Roy Hart Theatre Archives, Malérargues, France.〕〔Wolfsohn, A., ''The Problem of Limitations''. London 1958 (Manuscript). Trans. Kaya Anderson. Repository: Roy Hart Theatre Archives, Malérargues, France.〕 When Wolfsohn was 10 years old, his father, who had been a rifleman in the Franco-Prussian War, died of tuberculosis. Prior to his father's death, Wolfsohn had been disturbed by the sounds of his mother screaming during sexual intercourse, which he could hear from his bedroom.〔Wolfsohn, A., ''Die Brücke''. London 1947 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther and Sheila Braggins. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.〕 After his father died, Wolfsohn developed a close relationship with his mother, who comforted him by singing, using a high voice to depict an angel and a low voice for St Peter.〔Wolfsohn, A., ''Die Brücke''. London 1947 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther and Sheila Braggins. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.〕 Wolfsohn asserted that hearing his mother express both unpleasant screams and beautiful singing contributed to his belief that the human voice should be able to express the complete spectrum of human emotion.〔Wolfsohn, A., ''Orpheus, oder der Weg zu einer Maske''. Germany 1936–1938 (Manuscript). Trans. Marita Günther. Repository: Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alfred Wolfsohn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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