Elisabet Wentz-Janacek (20 August 1923 – 2014)[1] was a Swedish author, composer, musicologist, organist, and teacher,[2] who is best known for mapping 20,000 melody variants for Swedish hymns and helping to create the Swedish Choral Registrar. She was born in Stockholm and received a certificate, and later an honorary doctorate,[3] from Lund University.
Wentz-Janacek wrote a biography of musician John Enninger, articles for music journals, and contributed to a book on Swedish clergyman and Nobel Prize winner Nathan Soderblom, who was a personal acquaintance of her father. Her published writing includes:
- Folk Variants and New Songs: a Small Study from Southern Sweden 1820–1900 in Yearbook for Liturgy and Hymnology - Volume 36 - p. 273[4]
- John Enninger: Spelman, Kongl., Kammarmusikus, Klockare (available only in Swedish)[5]
- Northern European Countries in Workbook for the Evangelical Hymnbook, vol. 4, Songs from Other Countries and Languages, ed. Wolfgang Fischer pp. 27–39. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000
- Swedish Choral Registrar (a collection of 20,000 different melody variants for Swedish hymns)[6]
- Swedish Choral Registrar: Facts and Reflections in Hymnology: Nordisk Tidskrift XXXV pp. 193–197. 2006[7]
- Wentz-Janacek played organ and directed the children's choir at Lund Cathedral. Her musical compositions were published by Håkan Ohlssohns Boktryckeri, Proprius Musik AB, and Verbum Publications.[8] They include: