Adam de la Halle
born c. 1250, Arras, France
died c. 1306, Naples [now in Italy]
Adam de la Halle, also known as Adam le
Bossu was a French-born trouvère,
poet and musician, whose literary and
musical works include chansons and
jeux-partis (poetic debates)in the style
of the trouveres, polyphonic rondel and
motets in the style of early liturgical
polyphony, and a musical play, "The Play
of Robin and Marion", which is
considered the earliest surviving
secular French play with music. He was a
member of the Confrérie des jongleurs et
bourgeois d'Arras.
Adam's other nicknames, "le Bossu
d'Arras" and "Adam d'Arras", suggest
that he came from Arras, France. The
sobriquet "the Hunchback" was probably a
family name; Adam himself points out
that he was not one. His father, Henri
de le Hale, was a well-known Citizen of
Arras, and Adam studied grammar,
theology, and music at the Cistercian
abbey of Vaucelles, near Cambrai. Father
and son had their share in the civil
discords in Arras, and for a short time
took refuge in Douai. Adam had been
destined for the church, but renounced
this intention, and married a certain
Marie, who figures in many of his songs,
rondeaux, motets and jeux-partis.
Afterwards he joined the household of
Robert II, Count of Artois; and then was
attached to Charles of Anjou, brother of
Charles IX, whose fortunes he followed
in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Italy.
At the court of Charles, after Charles
became king of Naples, Adam wrote his
Jeu de Robin et Marion, the most famous
of his works. Adam's shorter pieces are
accompanied by music, of which a
transcript in modern notation, with the
original score, is given in
Coussemaker's edition. His Jeu de Robin
et Marion is cited as the earliest
French play with music on a secular
subject. The pastoral, which tells how
Marion resisted the knight, and remained
faithful to Robert the shepherd, is
based on an old chanson, Robin m'aime,
Robin m'a. It consists of dialogue
varied by refrains already current in
popular song. The melodies to which
these are set have the character of folk
music, and are more spontaneous and
melodious than the more elaborate music
of his songs and motets. Fétis
considered Le Jeu de Robin et Marion and
Le Jeu de la feuillée forerunners of the
comic opera. An adaptation of Le Jeu
Robin et Marion, by Julien Tiersot, was
played at Arras by a company from the
Paris Opéra-Comique on the occasion of a
festival in 1896 in honour of Adam de le
Hale.
His other play, Le jeu Adan or Le jeu de
la Feuillee (ca. 1262), is a satirical
drama in which he introduces himself,
his father and the citizens of Arras
with their peculiarities. His works
include a conge, or satirical farewell
to the city of Arras, and an unfinished
chanson de geste in honour of Charles of
Anjou, Le roi de Sicile, begun in 1282;
another short piece, Le jeu du pelerin,
is sometimes attributed to him.
His known works include thirty-six
chansons (literally, "songs"), forty-six
rondets de carole, eighteen jeux-partis,
fourteen rondeaux, five motets, one
rondeau-virelai, one ballette, one dit
d'amour, and one congé.
