Johannes Kneutgen, who performed situation 11 at the Liège premiere, was a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen, conducting research on the physiological effects of music or rhythm on the body and nervous system.
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These ideas were developed in conversations with the British biophysicist and lecturer on mystical aspects of sound vibration Jill Purce, who also called Stockhausen's attention to the work of Hans Jenny (Kurtz 1992, 192–93; Jenny 1967).
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Alphabet was created as a commission from the City of Liège on the initiative of Philippe Boesmans, for the Nuits de Septembre festival, and was premiered during a "Journée Karlheinz Stockhausen" on 23 September 1972.
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For example, they performed them in 1973 at the Metz Festival, in 1974 at both the Allgemeinen Deutschen Musikfest in Stuttgart and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and in 1978 in Luxembourg.
Liège | Greek alphabet | Standard Liège | Arabic alphabet | Liège (city) | fur trade | Liege | University of Liège | Latin alphabet | American Fur Company | Museum für Naturkunde | Hochschule für Musik | Thai alphabet | International Phonetic Alphabet | Serbian Cyrillic alphabet | Prince-Bishopric of Liège | Für Elise | Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit | NATO phonetic alphabet | Hochschule für Musik und Theater München | Fur clothing | Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung | Battle of Liège | Russian alphabet | Hochschule für Musik Detmold | Armenian alphabet | Albanian alphabet | Verein für Raumschiffahrt | Somali alphabet | Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège |
From March to September 1970, together with nineteen other musicians, he performed works by Stockhausen (including Hymnen, Spiral, Pole, and Aus den sieben Tagen ) in the spherical auditorium of the German Pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. Back in Europe, he continued his association with Stockhausen, taking part in the world premieres of Sternklang (1971) and Alphabet für Liège (1972) (Stockhausen and Vetter 1996, 95 and 98).