ADAM (or ADAN) DE LE HALE (c. 1238-1288), French troubadour, was born at Arras. His patronymic is generally mod ernized to La Halle, and he was commonly known to his contempo raries as Adam d'Arras or Adam le Bossu, sometimes simply as Le Bossu d'Arras. Adam studied grammar, theology and music at the Cistercian abbey of Vaucelles, near Cambrai. He joined the house hold of Robert II., count of Artois in 1272; and from 1283 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 he became king of Naples, Adam wrote his Jeu de Robin et Marion, the most famous of his works. He between 1285 and 1288. Adam's shorter pieces are accom panied 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, and on the strength of it he has been dubbed by some the father of opera-comique. It takes the form of a dramatic pastoral introducing a number of characters and consists of a 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. A modern adaptation, by Julien Tiersot, is occasionally performed. Another of his plays, Le jeu Adan or Le jeu de la Feuillee (c. 1262), was a satirical drama in which he introduced himself, his father and the citizens of Arras, with their peculiarities. His works include further 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.
only MS. which contains the whole of Adam's work is the La Valliere MS. (No. 25, 566) in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, dating from the latter half of the 13th century. Many of his pieces are also contained in Douce MS. 3o8, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. His Oeuvres completes (1872), were edited by E. de Coussemaker. See J. Tiersot, Sur le jeu Robin et Marion (1898) ; L. Nicod, Les Partures Adan, Les Jeux partis d'Adam de la Halle (1917) ; and, for full bibliography of works on the subject, No. 6, of the Bibliotheque de bibliographies critiques, by Henri Guy.