Frederick Matthais Alexander (1869-1955):
FM Alexander was born in Wynyard, a small town in far-flung Tasmania, the southernmost State of Australia. His schooling was somewhat unusual because at school he asked a lot of questions – this the school’s one teacher found difficult to deal with – there were composite classes. The teacher told Alexander’s parents to let him roam the countryside in the daytime and in the evening this teacher visited their home to teach the young boy; with particular emphasis given to the study of poetry and Shakespeare. Thus, in the daytime FM (FM as in FM Alexander) was outdoors walking or riding his horse through the surrounding bush, with opportunity to observe Nature.
FM made good progress with his studies and in 1883 he was appointed a School Monitor. A Monitor was an older student with skills to help the teacher with the younger students; there was a small remuneration. In 1885 FM, the eldest of a growing family, needed to earn money so he moved fifty miles south to Waratah to work as a junior accountant at the Mt Bischoff Tin Mines, then one of the richest tin mines in the world.
Waratah had a Mechanics Institute building, this was the cultural and educational centre of the town with a stage suitable for dramatic performance. FM took part in many of the productions and thus began his ambition to become a professional actor.
In 1889 FM moved to Melbourne to pursue an acting career. Melbourne, capital city of Victoria, had benefited greatly from large gold discoveries over the previous forty years. With a population of nearly 500,000 the city was thriving, had many theatres and the cultural life was vibrant. FM began acting lessons and took jobs to earn money.
For a while all went well then troubles began for FM when he was doing stage work. During a performance his voice became hoarse, and he had breathing difficulties. After a performance, friends told him that on stage his breathing sounded very noisy and there was a gasping sound. FM realised that when talking with friends he did not have these problems. He sought medical advice, but this brought no solution as to why his speech was fine off stage, but problems arose whilst on stage.
FM was puzzled by this contradiction. If at least his speech was fine off stage, then that meant he did not have a permanent physical structural problem. But why did speech fail him on stage? He had to find an answer. So he could observe both his manner of speech on stage and off stage, he got mirrors to watch himself doing these activities.
After months of careful observation and experiment, FM realised that for his on stage work, as he prepared to recite he made several alterations to his physical body which he did not do when about to speak to friends. These included tendencies to ‘pull back the head, depress the larynx, and suck in breath through the mouth in such a way so as to produce a gasping sound’. The question now was which of these three tendencies came first, to then cause the other two to follow?
FM discovered it was the ‘pulling back of the head’ that then caused the other two tendencies to occur. It took him some time to change these habit patterns of use of himself for his recitation work, he learnt to stop the ‘pull back of the head’. As FM continued with his experiments, he realised the importance of the head/neck area, calling it the primary control area. He also noted that the effect of how he used this area of his body had a marked effect on how the rest of his body could function. With this changed manner of Use FM gained ‘fine voice resonance and remarkable breath control’. He now resumed his stage work but also had other people – who noticed his performance improvement – wanting to learn from him his methods of voice production. He now had a dual career as an actor and teacher of Elocution.
FM was also often referred to as ‘the Breathing Man’ because of his knowledge and ability to help others with their breathing problems. He developed certain breathing procedures that have now become an integral part of learning the Alexander Technique.
FM’s dual career as actor and Elocution teacher lasted several years, involving long stays in Tasmania, New Zealand, Melbourne (again), then Sydney (1900-1904). By then, doctors were sending patients to FM for help with a variety of health problems and several leading medical practitioners urged him to go to England to teach his work. He went to London in 1904, teaching there, and in the USA for a number of prolonged visits. In 1931 FM started a formal Alexander Technique teacher training course in London so others could carry on the work he had developed. FM never returned to his homeland, Australia, he died in London in 1955.