French composer, one of the later
trouvères. The son of a burgher of Arras, Adam was
educated at the Cistercian Abbey of Vaucelles and intended for
the priesthood, but he fell in love and insisted on marrying
(the marriage did not last). From 1262 he studied at the
University of Paris, and in 1271 was in the service of Robert
II of Artois, whom he accompanied to Naples, possibly in 1282;
some of his most important works were performed at the Naples
court. He died there a few years later. While in Naples he
created his famous
Jeu de Robin et Marion,
performed at Naples in 1275 or 1285. This play with songs and
dialogue pieces is sometimes called 'the first comic opera'. It
is not known whether the melodies are folksongs or the
composer's own (though he certainly wrote the texts) or whether
instruments were used to accompany the voices. It is a naive
dramatic pastoral with many short songs sung by the leading
actors. It went down in the history of French literature as the
secular
Singspiel,
or song-play. His gracefully turned melodies typify the charm
of the art of the troubadours.
The esteem in which de la Halle was held
in his time is evidenced by the fact that his were the first
musical works to be collected and edited. (They are now in the
National Library of Paris.) It is surprising that this volume
contains not only his chansons and song plays, but also
rondeaux and motets for three voices. This shows that Adam was
not only a Trouvère, but that he was also accomplished
in the important art of polyphonic composition. Apparently he
studied polyphonic composition at the University of Paris,
which shortly before had been founded by Robert de Sorbonne and
which numbered, among its staff, famous music theorists. Of the
various musical forms which the polyphonic art had already
developed, Adam de la Halle's rondeaux are of the simplest
type. All parts carry the same rhythm and (as far as they are
not instrumental), they have the same text. Adam was among the
few thirteenth century composers to apply polyphonic techniques
to the various contemporary types of secular music-ballade,
rondeau and virelai; sixteen such pieces, in conductus style,
survive. They are often very attractive and in some ways
anticipate fourteenth century developments. Seven motets and
many monophonic songs also survive. Other compositions of that
time, such as the "motetus," were much more complicated.
Nevertheless, when Adam's rondeaux were discovered toward the
latter part of the 19th century, the melodies, were found to be
rather strange. Today we are once more accustomed to the
polyphonic sound and it no longer poses a problem to grasp the
meaning of the melodic variations of the different voices.
Adam's rondeaux usually express a love
theme, as do his troubadour compositions. The structure of the
rondeaux, solo voiced "couplets" alternating with multi-voiced
"refrains," shows that they too are based on the traditional
folksong.