Adam de la Halle

Adam de la Halle occupies a distinctive position astride two developments in music background. On the main one hands, he was the “last from the Trouvères,” getting to an in depth the excellent early flowering of Aged French lyric poetry; the top body of his facile and regular courtly chansons stand properly based on the customs fostered by Eleanor of Aquitane; Thibault de Champagne, Ruler of Navarre; as well as the eloquent Gace Brulé. Alternatively, Adam mingled this traditional monophonic structure with the even more esoteric type of the thirteenth hundred years motet, and performed the 1st tests in polyphonic secular track. In this respect, he positioned himself squarely in the center of stylistic trends that could come to best fruition within the next hundred years, using the Ars Nova of Philippe de Vitry and preeminently in the physique of Guillaume de Machaut. Unfortunately, for any poet and musician of such flexibility and prowess, not really a single little bit of datable paperwork for his existence survives. The proper execution of his name (and later on manuscript attributions) describe his delivery in the town of Arras — an optimistic hotbed of literary tradition — 80 kilometers north of Paris. (Another type of his name, “le Boscu,” suggests a handicap or perhaps a hunchback, but Adam inside a past due poem denies this impairment!) His dad Henri was well informed, and most likely a cleric and civic worker who passed away in 1290; Adam’s wife, called Maroie, may possess passed away in Arras in 1287. Adam himself is usually often referred to as “Maistre,” indicating his conclusion of some advanced research; these occurred either at Vauchelles Abbey, or even more most likely, in Paris. Adam also certainly participated in the energetic actions of Arras’ literary societies, the Confrérie des jongleurs (Guild of Artesian Jongleurs) as well as the renowned Puy d’Arras. This second option association opt for king who judge poetic contests among the users; God Himself was rumored to wait the festivities to listen to their poetry. In 1282, Adam evidently journeyed as poet and musician in the retinue of Robert II, Count number of Artois, on the marketing campaign to Naples to assist his uncle Charles d’Anjou following the massacre from the Sicilian Vespers. Adam passed away in Italy, sometime between 1285 (the loss of life of Charles as well as the event for his poem Le roi de Secile) and 1289. As mentioned above, Adam de la Halle created a remarkably flexible body of functions. And unlike a lot of the Trouvère poets, whose tunes survive in huge anthologies, many manuscripts try to gather music just of his; one manuscript in Paris actually presages Machaut by sorting Adam’s “gathered functions” by genre. He made up 36 chansons in the Trouvère custom — a relatively prolific quantity. Seventeen jeux-partis (stanzaic dialogues between two poets) consist of his wittily phrased (if standard) contributions about courtly like. His longer functions consist of an epic Chanson de geste about the Ruler of Sicily, a satiric episode (Le jeu de la Feuillée), and a pastoral episode with music — Le jeu de Robin et de Marion — which is usually frequently dubbed the “1st comic opera.” Furthermore, he finished at least five essays in the genre from the polytextual French motet, and a couple of 16 dance-based refrain tunes of varied forms known as Rondeaux. This last arranged, known as Le Rondel Adam inside a manuscript duplicate of his functions, contains most likely the first polyphonic configurations of vernacular tune in Europe.