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• Hoftanz "Benzenhauer"

Hoftanz "Benzenhauer"

for 5 instruments.

The Hoftanz is shrouded in mystery: we know nothing of its steps, though links have been shown with the fifteenth-century basse danse. To make matters worse, the source containing the largest number of Hoftänze, the second of the two dance collections published by the Hessen brothers of Breslau in 1555, Etlicher gutter Teutscher und Polnischer Tentz, is missing the top part in the only Surviving copy. Only three Hoftänze survive complete in polyphonic settings, the Benzenhauer I printed here and two others called "Schwarzknab" and "Le petit rouen"
respectively.
As well as appearing in the Hessen book (no. 64), Benzenhauer I survives in two manuscript sources, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Mus. MS 1516, and Ulm, Schermarche Stiftung, Ms. 236a-d, with some variants (chiefly in the Altus – see below). Benzenhauer II id found only in Hessen, so the top part is editorial.
In all the surviving polyphonic settings of Hoftänze the melody is in the tenor, though in some contemporary lute and keyboard arrangements it is in the top part. Certainly the use of a slow-moving tenor, presumably played on a prominent wind instrument such as a shawm, with rythmically elaborate counterpoints, would seem to be a feature borrowed from, or at least in common with, the basse danse. A lute setting of Benzenhauer is in Newsidler's book of 1549.
In the present edition both pieces have been transposed up a forth. Note values have been quartered throughout. In the first setting Hessen has been followed, but the varied repeats from Munich have been incorporated into the edition. Editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave.
These pieces can be performed in 4 or 5 parts: the Vagant is an afterthought, and is not found in Munich or Ulm. In scoring these dances it is essential that the tenor part, which has the tune, is clearly heard.