A term that appears in German music history with three distinct meanings: as the name of several Töne (see Ton (i)) in Minnesang and Meistergesang of the 13th–17th centuries; as a type of short homophonic love song of the 15th and 16th centuries; and to denote the tenor (cantus firmus) of the 15th- and 16th-century Tenorlied.
(1) Hofweise is the name of a Sangspruch melody by Walther von der Vogelweide that bears the title Wiener Hofton in academic literature. In these authenticated verses (written c1200) the poet is addressed by a personification of the Viennese court. Two generations later, the manner in which poets play on the term ‘Hof’ in stanzas based on this Ton suggests that ‘Hofton’ had by then passed into common use. In the Meistersinger tradition from the 14th century onwards, the Töne of many Sangspruch poets are called Hofton or Hofweise (e.g. those of Marner, Boppe, Kanzler and Konrad von Würzburg). However, apart from the tripartite bar form characteristic of all Sangspruch melodies, they have nothing in common. Only their names suggest any connection with court use.
(2) In the 15th and 16th centuries ‘Hofweise’ is used for a short, monodic courting song, for example in Wittenweiler’s Ring, in the Lochamer Liederbuch or in the work of Hans Sachs. The word no longer carries connotations of use at court but, rather, a noble, courtly manner (Ger. hofieren: ‘to pay court to’) . The change in meaning may be linked to the Hofton of the Minnesinger Reinmar von Brennenberg, used by its author (and later, from the 13th century to the 16th) to denote a monostrophic courting song. These ‘Hoftöne’ show a preference for binary forms with a preponderance of added refrains.
(3) The modern definition of ‘Hofweise’ originated with Moser, who, taking as his starting-point the form described above (2), used the term to refer to newly composed polyphonic songs in bar form from the period 1480–1550 (the time of Hofhaimer and Senfl). Moser derived the term from the musical form as well as the texts, distinguishing between folksong texts and those influenced by humanist ideas (Gebildetenlyrik: ‘learned poetry’). Later, however, ‘Hofweise’ came to denote any tenor of the German Tenorlied and also its texts, as well as polyphonic arrangements.
H.J. Moser: ‘Renaissancelyrik deutscher Musiker um 1500’, DVLG, v (1927), 381–412
C. Petzsch: ‘Weiteres zum Lochamer-Liederbuch und zu den Hofweisen: ein Beitrag zur Frage des Volksliedes im Mittelalter’, Jb für Volksliedforschung, xvii (1972), 9–34
J. Rettelbach: Variation – Derivation – Imitation: Untersuchungen zu den Tönen der Sangspruchdichter und Meistersinger (Tübingen, 1993)
CHRISTOPH PETZSCH