Adam de la Halle, also known as
Adam le Bossu (
Adam the Hunchback) (1237?-1288) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
-born
trouvèreTrouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur, is the Northern French form of the word troubadour . It refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France...
,
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and
musicianA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
, 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.
Adam de la Halle, also known as
Adam le Bossu (
Adam the Hunchback) (1237?-1288) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
-born
trouvèreTrouvère , sometimes spelled trouveur, is the Northern French form of the word troubadour . It refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France...
,
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and
musicianA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
, 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'ArrasThe Confrérie des jongleurs et bourgeois d'Arras was a fraternity of jongleurs founded in Arras in or around 1175. As its name implies, it was intended for jongleurs and the bourgeoisie, not just he knightly class. It also did not hold poetic contests...
.
Adam's other nicknames, "le Bossu d'Arras" and "Adam d'Arras", suggest that he came from
Arras, FranceArras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
. The sobriquet "the
HunchbackKyphosis also called "hunchback", in a general term, is a common condition of a curvature of the upper spine...
" 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
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
,
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
, and
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
at the
CistercianThe Order of Cistercians is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monks. They are sometimes also called the White Monks, in reference to the colour of the habit, over which a black scapular or apron is sometimes worn...
abbeyAn abbey , is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community....
of
VaucellesVaucelles is a commune in the département of Calvados in the Basse-Normandie region of France. Its postal code is 14400. The INSEE code is 14728.-Administrative:*Population: 222*Area: 3.56 km²*Elevation: 63 m*Canton: Bayeux...
, near
CambraiCambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....
. Father and son had their share in the civil discords in Arras, and for a short time took refuge in
DouaiDouai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some 40 km from Lille and 25 km from Arras, Douai is home to one of the region's most impressive belfries.The population of the metropolitan area, including...
. Adam had been destined for the church, but renounced this intention, and married a certain Marie, who figures in many of his songs,
rondeauxThis article is about the poetry form. For other uses, see Rondeau.A rondeau is a form of French poetry with 15 lines written on two rhymes, as well as a corresponding musical form developed to set this characteristic verse structure...
,
motetIn Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is "motectum", and the Italian mottetto was...
s and
jeux-partisJeu parti [Fr.; Provençal joc partit, “partimen”]. A debate or dialogue in the form of a poem. According to Guilhem Molinier, the author of Las leys d'amors, a 13th-century treatise on how to write poetry in the style of the troubadours, there is a clear difference between a partimen and a tenso:...
. Afterwards he joined the household of
Robert II, Count of ArtoisRobert II was the Count of Artois, the posthumous son and heir of Robert I and Matilda of Brabant.An experienced soldier, he took part in the Aragonese Crusade and attempted an invasion of Sicily in 1287. He defeated the Flemings in 1297 at the Battle of Furnes...
; and then was attached to Charles of Anjou, brother of
Charles IXCharles IX born Charles-Maximilien, was King of France, ruling from 1560 until his death. He is best known as king at the time of the St...
, whose fortunes he followed in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
,
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
,
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
, and
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
.
At the court of Charles, after Charles became king of
NaplesNaples in Italy, is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old...
, Adam wrote his
Jeu de Robin et MarionThe Jeu de Robin et Marion is reputedly the earliest French secular play with music, and is the most famous work of Adam de la Halle.The story is a dramatization of a traditional genre of medieval French song, the pastourelle. This genre typically tells of an encounter between a knight and a...
, 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'sCharles Edmond Henri de Coussemaker, known as Edmond de Coussemaker, born on 19 April 1805 in Belle, died on 10 January 1876 in Rijsel, was a schooled jurist. As a musicologist and ethnologist, he focused mainly on the heritage of French Flanders...
edition. His
Jeu de Robin et Marion is cited as the earliest French play with music on a secular subject. The
pastoralPastoral, as an adjective, refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and food. "Pastoral" also describes literature, art and music which depicts the life of shepherds, often in a highly...
, which tells how Marion resisted the knight, and remained faithful to Robert the shepherd, is based on an old
chansonA chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specializing in chansons is known as a "chanteur"; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The earliest chansons...
,
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 musicThe term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer...
, and are more spontaneous and melodious than the more elaborate music of his songs and motets.
FétisFrançois-Joseph Fétis was a Belgian musicologist, composer, critic and teacher. He was one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century, and his enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today...
considered
Le Jeu de Robin et Marion and
Le Jeu de la feuillée forerunners of the
comic operaComic opera, or light opera, denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
. An adaptation of
Le Jeu Robin et Marion, by Julien Tiersot, was played at Arras by a company from the Paris
Opéra-ComiqueThe théâtre national de l’Opéra-Comique is an opera company and opera house in Paris. It is located in the place Boïeldieu, in the 2e arrondissement of Paris, not far from the Opera Garnier, home of the Paris National Opera.-Foundation:The Opéra-Comique company was established in 1714 by the St...
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
satiricalSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
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 gesteThe chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known examples date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, nearly a hundred years before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the...
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
rondeauxThis article is about the poetry form. For other uses, see Rondeau.A rondeau is a form of French poetry with 15 lines written on two rhymes, as well as a corresponding musical form developed to set this characteristic verse structure...
, five
motetIn Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is "motectum", and the Italian mottetto was...
s, one
rondeau-virelaiA virelai is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music. It is one of the three formes fixes , and was one of the most common verse forms set to music in Europe from the late thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries.A virelai is similar to a rondeau...
, one
ballette, one
dit d'amour, and one
congé.
Example
Recording
- 2004 – Zodiac. Ars Nova
Ars nova was a stylistic period in music of the Late Middle Ages, centered in France, which encompassed the period roughly from the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel until the death of Machaut...
and Ars SubtiliorArs subtilior is a musical style characterized by rhythmic and notational complexity, centered around Paris, Avignon in southern France, also in northern Spain at the end of the fourteenth century. The style also is found in the French Cypriot repertory...
in the Low Countries and Europe Capilla FlamencaCapilla Flamenca is a prominent vocal and instrumental early music consort based in Leuven, Belgium. The group specialises in 14th to 16th Century music from Flanders and takes its name from the choir of the court chapel of Emperor Charles V...
. Eufoda 1360.
External links