_full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en nul 0 in hierna): 0 _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (oude _articletitle_deel, vul hierna in): The Songs of Adam de la Halle _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 The Songs Of Adam De La Halle 189 Chapter 7 The Songs of Adam de la Halle Isabelle Ragnard In the Jeu de la feuillée, two fairy godmothers grant Adam de la Halle the es- sential gifts every lyric poet needs: “Morgue veut qu’il soit li plus amoureus / Qui soit trouvés en nul pais” (Morgue wants him to be the best lover of any country) and Arsile “qu’il soit jolis / Et bons faiseres de canchons” (Arsile wants him to be joyous and a good composer of songs).1 Even though scholars have primarily focused on the arrageois composer’s polyphonic songs and plays, which are considered pioneering, the trouvère himself seems to have given more importance to his monodic production, which is placed at the beginning of the manuscript collection of his works.2 Writing in langue d’oïl, Adam de la Halle stands out as the principal poet of the third and last generation of trouvères, who were active during the second half of the thirteenth century. His abundant lyrical output, thirty-six monodic songs, puts him in third place among the most prolific composers, after the champenois Gace Brulé (ca. 1160 – after 1213), who is credited with sixty songs, and Thibaut de Champagne (1201–53) who wrote about forty-seven.3 While Jacques Bretel wrote significantly more jeux-partis than him, Adam is the most prolific Artesian trouvère in the grand chant courtois tradition. He wrote a good dozen more than the Artesians Jehan Erart (d. 1258 or 1259), Guillaume le Vinier (d. 1245), Gautier de Dargies (ca. 1165 – after 1236) and Moniot d’Arras (fl. ca. 1250–75). The urban milieu of the cities in the north of France privileged the emer- gence of “light” songs – pastourelles, chanson de toile, rotruenges or aubes – in which narrative content and forms that use the refrain predominate. Leaving behind this “popular” register – he only composes one chanson de femme, or 1 All citations by Adam are from Adam de la Halle, Œuvres complètes, ed. and trans. Pierre-Yves Badel (Paris: Librairie Générale Française, 1995), edition, and modern French translation after manuscript fr. 25566. Here, Le Jeu de la feuillée, vv. 662–65, ibid., 334–37. All English transla- tions are by the translator of this article. 2 Fr. 25566. For the other manuscripts and their abbreviations, see Appendix I. While there is a large discography for Adam’s “rondeaux,” albums of the monodic songs can be counted on one hand. Only one recording offers a collection of eleven songs by the trouvère: Adam de la Halle, d’amoureus cuer voel chanter, by Les Jardins de Courtoisie, Zig-Zag Territoires, 2007. 3 Critics disagree on how many songs may be attributed to the two trouvères. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004379480_009 190 Ragnard woman’s song (XV/RS 658) and one chanson à refrain (X/RS 612) – Adam de- voted himself to the creation of lyrical works in the noble style of the grand chant. These were on love, sometimes close to the serventois (XXIII/RS 1383 and XXV/RS 432), or transcending it, in dedication to Mary (XXXIV/RS 495 and XXVIII/RS 1180).4 These songs mark the end of a secular tradition begun by troubadours from Aquitaine at the beginning of the twelfth century. Adam re- spects the formal rules and courtly rhetoric of this tradition while demonstrat- ing his very own personal creativity, using a variety of tones and a diversity of structures. While his polyphonic rondeaux anticipate the fixed form of the ars nova contrapuntal songs, his monodic songs without refrains are the last bril- liant sparks of monodic lyric poetry in France. 1 The Sources 1.1 Number of Songs and Order Unlike the works of other trouvères, the authorship of Adam de la Halle’s lyri- cal poetry cannot be contested because it is confirmed by material evidence: the name “bossu d’Arras” (the hunchback of Arras) appears at the beginning of manuscripts or fascicles that contain his works or even before each song; these rubrics are often redundant.5 Finally, thirty-six songs are attributed to Adam de la Halle in thirteen manuscripts and two copies of the Dit de la panthère,6 meaning that there are more copies of them than of any other of his works.7 4 To identify each song, I will use Coussemaker and Badel’s system of roman numerals and the general classification number of the trouvères chansons, based on the alphabetic order of rhymes, by Gaston Raynaud (1884) and Hans Spanke, G. Raynauds Bibliographie des alfranzö- sischen Liedes (Leiden: Brill, 1955). See note 9. 5 In A, the collection bears the title “Adans li bocus fist ces kancons,” and there is a rubric at the beginning of each song: “adans li bocus darras” or “adans li bocus” or “adans” or “adan.” Conflicting attributions result from late and faulty additions. In R-trouv., which doesn’t con- tain any original attributions, two modern annotations (n°14a Blondiaus and n°10 Perrin d’Angecort), most probably by Fauchet, are mistaken. 6 Fr. 24432, fols. 153v–171 and Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, fr. Q.v.XIV.3, fols. 46–64. For a description, see Henry A. Todd, Le dit de la panthère d’amours par Nicole de Margival, poème du XIIIe siècle, Société des anciens textes français (Paris: Didot, 1883), vi–xii (published after the manuscripts of Paris and Saint Petersburg). 7 See Table 7.1. The medieval sources are summarily described in John H. Marshall, ed., The Chansons of Adam de la Halle (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1971), 14–17; modern copies are indicated by Nigel Wilkins, The Lyric Works of Adam de la Halle: Chansons, jeux-partis, rondeaux, motets, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 44 (Stuttgart, Hänssler 1967), 3–29. For the main musicological studies of these manuscripts, see: John Stevens, “The .