Only two pieces of organ music by Hofhaimer survive. His fame rested on his skills as an improviser, so it is fortunate that at least these two pieces exist to give us an idea of his style. One piece, Salve Regina, was recorded on our earlier CD (Heinrich Isaac: Motets for Kaiser Maximilian I CHR 77217) with a reconstruction of the chant from early German sources. The other piece, the Offertory Recordare Virgo Mater was less easy of access, since the second part 'Ab hac familia' was obviously a trope or prosa, which had to be fitted to the long melisma or 'jubilus' which occurs at the end of the chant. However, there turn out to be other versions of the piece which can be summoned to aid the reconstruction, and our version follows closely that in the British Library Add Ms 227630. This includes a 2-voice setting of the text, in which the lower voice sings the chant in long notes. The version presented here, with a conjectural rhythmicisation similar to that adopted in our other chant performances, is only one possible solution.

The piece is originally the Offertory for the Marian mass Salve sancta parens, and is still to be found under the Common of BVM in current chant books (e.g. Graduale Romanum). The chant differs somewhat from the German dialect version of Passau on which our performance is principally based.