Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/A/Adam, Louis

Adam, Louis, of Paris, was born about 1760, at Miettersholtz, near the Rhine. His first master on the harpsichord was one of his relations, an excellent amateur ; he had after-wards lessons on the piano, for some months, from an organist of Strasburg, by the name of Hepp, who died about the year 1800 ; but Adam was more especially indebted, for the science and talent which placed him in the first rank of professors of the piano, to his unassisted study of the writings of E. Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart, and Clementi. Adam, when young, taught himself the violin and the harp, as also composition, the knowledge of which he obtained from the writings of Mattheson, Fux, Marpurg, and other Germans. He arrived at Paris at the age of seventeen, meaning to follow music as a profession, and made his abut as a composer by two concertante symphonies for the harp and piano, with the violin, which were executed at the Spiritual Concerts, and were the first of the kind that had been heard. After this he applied himself to teaching and composition. In 1797, he was appointed professor of the piano at the Conservatory, where he formed a great number of excellent pupils, among whom the most known are Kalkbrenner, F. Chaulieu, Merland, Henri le Moine, he. Adam's works are, "A Method of Fingering for the Piano," "A Method for Piano-Playing, adopted by the Conservatory and all other Schools of Music in France," various sonatas, &c.