Acknowledgements

At the workshop “Antiphonaria” held at Institut für Musikwissenschaft of the University of Regensburg in September 2006, a meeting in which I was invited to participate, I was informed that my book on the Office of the Dead was out of print and that there was an urgent need for scholars as well as librarians to be able to purchase it. I was therefore encouraged to have the book reprinted.

The present edition is an un-emended reprint of the first edition of 1993, except for the addition of a new preface in the beginning and a couple of pages with corrections at the end of the book. In the acknowledgements of the first edition I had to inform my readers that since Professor Bjarner Svejgaard had regrettably died before my data and the computer-programs were transferred to a personal computer, and since the original machine was not in operation, it was no longer possible to make inquiries into the data. This deficiency has now been remedied.

At the Musicological Institute in Regensburg Dr. Robert Klugseder re-encoded all my series of responsories organized in such a way that it is not only possible to search for any of my full series (with all 9 responsories) but also to search for series of which one only knows a few, under the condition that their position is unmistakable. They are published on the internet under the address:

http://www-musikwissenschaft.uni-r.de/cantus à ‘Databases’

In 2003 I retired from my chair at the Theological Faculty, University of Aarhus, and had, consequently, to remove my material, papers and books from my office, including all my printed documentation, microfilms and Xerox-copies of the sources used in my dissertation. The material concerning the Offices of the Dead is now placed at the Institute of Musicology in Regensburg. You are welcome to ask any question (as to the versicles, the readings, copies of the texts etc.) to the staff of the Institute (the address is to be found on the above mentioned web-site).

The database in Regensburg is also the most obvious place to add new series of responsories that are not included in my book. It only requires the needed bibliographical information and a Xerox-copy or a digital print of the text for matins of the Office of the Dead in question, and the staff of the Institute will take care of the encoding of the series into the database.

Brabrand, the 6^th April, 2007.

Knud Ottosen