Journal of Fine Arts: Performing Arts and Music
Year:2013 | Volume:17 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

The purpose of the article is to exhibit this fact that embellishments, despite of their lexical meaning, do not play just an ornamental role in Iranian classical music, but they have an extremely important function to form the structural facets of Dastgahi music; in fact, the embellishments are irremovable elements in the mentioned musical system. First of all, some brief explanations about concept and function of embellishments in Iranian classical music would be cited. Then, we will divide the embellishments, based on an especial approach, into two groups: Tonic and Modal. Tonic and Modal embellishments are used to ornament a specific tone and a specific mode respectively. The first kind of them is too widespread and varied in Iranian classical music and includes the kinds of vibration, tremolo, glissando, trill, mordant, staccato, Dorrâb, Kande Kâri, Eshâre, Tekiye, Pejvak, Shalâl etc. They are applied in both of instrumental and vocal Persian music. Among the important musical techniques which have always been considered as ornamental component by Iranian performers and musicologists, sometimes a long continuum of tones that is called Tahrir (Melisma) can be seen. Tahrirs are remarkable embellishments in Persian vocal and instrumental music. Tahrir is a “falsetto break or cracking of the voice in the form of the grace note above, and between the notes of, the melody line”. This phenomenon is called Chacha in the vernacular Persian term. From author’s point of view, the Tahrirs are the most important sort of the second group. Consequently, the most significant part of the article would be focused on clarifying the meaning and function of Tahrir in Iranian classical music. At the mentioned part of the article, according to the statistical study, we will show that the Tahrirs take more than half of the time of a specific musical performance. The mentioned statistical study would carry out based on assessment the measure of Tahrirs utilization in 35 records of famous Iranian vocalists; such as Seyyed Ahmad Xân, Hosein Xân Ta’ziye Xân, Ghorbân Xân, Soleimân Amir Qâsemi, Jenâb Damavandi, Seyyed Hosein Tâherzade, Hosein Ali Nakisâ, Abolhasan Eqbâl Âzar, Rezâ Gholi Mirzâ Zelli, Ghamarolmolouk Vaziri, Tâj Isfahâni, Abdollâh Davâmi, Adib Xânsâri, Ruhangiz, Gholâm Hosein Banân, Hosein Ghavâmi, Mahmoud Mahmoudi Xânsâri, Mahmoud Karimi, Hosein Xâje Amiri (Iraj), Razavi Sarvestâni, Râmbod Sodeif, and Mohammad Rezâ Shajariân. All of the case studies are in Dastgah-e Châhârgâh (one of the twelve multi-modal cycles in Iranian traditional music) and Âvâz-e Isfahan (The Âvâz is traditionally regarded as a derivative Dastgâh whit the fewer Gushes). According to this investigation, we will see the Tahrirs involve more than 55 percent of Iranian vocal music duration; it seems that this result can be accepted about instrumental music too. As a conclusion of the article, it is clear that, the embellishments, at least in Iranian classical music, are not omissible elements. Additionally, they have an organic relation with main body of the music.

This article, “History, Adaptation and Appropriation in Cinema”, based on descriptive and analytical approach, tries to clarify new less known theoretical perspectives towards history, narrative and adaptation. The importance of the issue is intensified by the increased number of films adapted from historical texts. In other words, history texts have always been a source for film production, especially historical film that form a considerable film genre. Although, already there are some published books on the subject of film adaptation, they have been, however, rather focused on practical aspects than theoretical frameworks. The same is true about dramaturgy as treated in most of theatrical books and journals. In the first section of this paper, action of adaptation, kinds of adaptation, action of appropriation and its relation to the action of adaptation are explained. Furthermore, the relation of the action of adaptation and such issues as literary theft are more developed and discovered. Exploring different aspects of the action of appropriation, new metaphors are introduced which explain the action more thoroughly. Another topic discussed in this section, based on Robert Stam’s concepts of adaptation, deals with the impact of new metaphors on the theory of adaptation. This article also borrows many ideas from Julie Sanders’s famous book Adaptation and Appropriation which deals exclusively with the issues of adaptation and appropriation in films adapted from literary and history texts. The final part of this section explores the relations between Darwinian world, evolution process, and the world of adaptation. Second section of the article deals with the relation between history and narrative, and the relation of history texts to cinematic or literary adaptations. The main topics of this section include: new developments in the theories of history, their impact on the field of adaptation, fidelity to the history, and originality of historical narratives. It is argued that in a historical drama, the very history text could be considered as the main source of the narrative. Reacting towards this kind of historical drama, however, some history scholars try to measure the drama against its degree of fidelity to the historical facts, by establishing a kind of historical determinacy as the evaluation criteria in appraising such adapted works. One of the most controversial issues in this field – the issue of fidelity – is the topic of the third section of this paper. Other topics dealt with here include: the (im) possibility of fidelity in the action of adaptation, the effects of such theoretical approaches as structuralism and post structuralism, originality and its discourse, and the impact of digital media and new technologies on the theory of adaptation. Also, Gadamer’s notion of “fusion of cultural horizons” is deployed as a means to explain the process of adapting historical texts into films. Furthermore, such important issues as intertextuality between historical text and cinematic adaptation, and the interaction through fusion of cultural horizons, are explained. Some of the other topics discussed here are: the impact of theoretical turns of history theory and adaptation theory on film adaptation, and evaluation of such cinematic adaptations.

The Iranian “New Wave” filmmakers started to pay attention to social changes during the Pahlavi regime. Imperial Pahlavi successfully suppressed his political oppositions in decade of 1332-1342 (Hijri Shamsi) and spread a social reform during the following decades in 40’s to 50’s. The Iranian cinematic movement that was called New Wave by some Persian film critics because of its similarly to the new wave cinema in France as well as its simultaneous happening, criticized government’s pseudo modernism of that era. These filmmakers made films that many of them were censored or even banned by the Pahlavi regime until the victory of the Islamic revolution. The Iranian New Wave movies were strong in their screenplay and artistic form and cinematic structure; and are well known for their mise- en-scène, shooting script, montage, costume design and make up. In other words, the Iranian New Wave films not only attracted the Persian audiences but also raised the level of expectations. Besides being influenced by main international movements like new realism in Italy, and new wave movement in France and auteur theory, Iranian New Wave filmmakers were affected by world’s literature and the contemporary critical sociology of Iranian intellectuals. In fact the movement originated the Persian new literatures, more specifically the modernist writers. Most of the filmmakers were accustomed to literature in a new way and this affection lead to evolution in narrative modes in cinematic works. The movement was much affected by the auteur theory in practice. Alike French new wave, Persian filmmakers had an affinity with literature but they preferred a new adaptation with cinematic creation. Considering adaptation, most Iranian filmmakers added their own interpretation to fictions. Some of these filmmakers in fact were active in writing short novels or plays. In that era, dominant cinema in Iran well known film Farsi (dragotory name given to a genere if Iranian films) imitated Hollywood and Indian films. Persian popular films, as the state apparatus propagated consumerism, promoted lustful living and happy lifestyles. Superstars of these films entertained their target movie audience mainly with song and dance. Two films, The Cow (1348) and Shazdeh Ehtedjab(1353) have chosen for case studies. These films were adaptatons from Persian modern literatures and received a number of international awards. Their directors, Dariush Mehrjui and Bahman Farmanara, tried to transfer Persian modern literature using the language of cinema. We have concluded that the development and spread of the new wave movement in Iranian cinema had direct relation to the Iranian society passing from tradition to modernity.

In a fictional movie, Shadow is not only a technical and thematic concept, but also one of the most illustrative and expressing aesthetic elements of the movie. Shadows vast dimensions have led to various discussions and studies along the history of cinema. The main theory of this essay is that a shadow is a comprehensible phenomenon whose interpretation and understanding are greatly essential and important. By taking the above theory under consideration questions such as “What are the concepts and structural usages of shadows in a movie?” and “Whether shadows have cultural dimension in each historical period or not?” will be answered. This article will discuss that a movie cannot be considered as an abstract element outside of its historical context and shows that the study of historical developments and cultural backgrounds of movies would be of great help in understanding the underlying concepts of shadows and their causes and applications. Anything that you see in a shot of a movie is part of that movie’s mise-on-scene and so is a shadow. Hence analyzing a shadow is part of mise-on-scene criticism and study. In the beginning of this survey, the cultural and dramatic background of shadows will be briefly described by representing the background of creation and utilization of shadows as dramatic elements in literature of Iran and other parts of the world. Then considering the historical context and applying the methods of mise-on-scene criticism, the significance of shadows and their historical transitions in the first half of the 20th century will be discussed by focusing on film noir. To do so, first the appearance of shadows and creative usage of them in German expressionist cinema will be discussed. Then the utilization of shadows in American gangster movies of 1930s and special ways of French directors of poetic realism in working with them will be studied. Afterward, technical maturity and expressing powers of shadows in film noirs of 1940s and 1950s along with influence of German expressionism, French poetic realism and Italian neorealism on those films will be perused. Finally the works and personal styles of Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, as masters of utilizing shadows in the medium of cinema will be studied with regards to their influence on film noir. This essay emphasizes that shadows in a movie are practical means to study the cinematic developments and that the form, shape and size of shadows include conceptual hidden characteristics related to the performers or the objects casting the shadows; and will explain that each shadow is a sign that represents projection of hidden aspects of the personality of the cinematic persona. This survey, on one hand, will interpret the symbolic concepts and notions of these shadows and on the other hand, will study their historical importance and the cultural factors influencing them in the first half of the 20th century.

In the recent years, the knowledge of stylistics has experienced some new branches. Thanks to the recent efforts of a group of linguists, traditional stylistics has changed its branches in favour of genres, rather than the types of prose and verse. Up until two decades ago, stylistics mainly focused on the form of the text, and the genres were almost ignored or overlooked. However, in the light of the studies of people such as Mick Short, Geoffrey Leech, Johnathan Culpeper, Elena Semino and some other linguists, now we are able to conduct research on the stylistics of short story, stylistics of novel, stylistics of poetry, and for sure, stylistics of drama. Stylistics of drama which is considered an interdisciplinary field of study between pragmatics and literary studies, gives numerous ways to analyze dramatic works. From these ways the most important ones are “turn-taking in drama” and ‘’speech acts’’ through which a more thorough understanding of the play is to be formed. As far as ‘’turn-taking’’ is considered, some factors like starting conversations, having more turns, having longer turns, interrupting other characters, appointing next speaker and appointing the subject of conversation are to be focused. In 1974, the underlying principles of turn-taking were first described by sociologists Harvey Sacks, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson in their seminal article named “A Simplest Systematic for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation, ” which was published in the journal Language. Later on, issues such as Adjacency Pair, Back- Channel Signal, Conversational Grounding, Cooperative Overlap, Cooperative Principle, Discourse Markers, Listening and Repair were introduced, and dialogue analysis turned out to be a separate field of study. This new field also enjoyed some already established fields as well to continue its growth. These items were speech acts and performative sentences. Speech act is a technical term in linguistics and the philosophy of language. The contemporary use of the term goes back to J. L. Austin’ and J.Searl’s development of performative utterances and his theory of locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. Speech acts are commonly taken to include such acts as promising, ordering, greeting, warning, inviting and congratulating. So, the Analysis of ‘’speech acts’’ necessarily includes all the five levels mentioned above, as well as the issue of power among the characters involved in a conversation. All the above mentioned issues have recently been employed in the analysis of drama, and new light has been shed in the literary criticism of a genre which provides excellent examples for dialogue analysis. In the current research, efforts have been made to make the best use of the techniques of the stylistics of drama to analyze one of the most striking plays of the contemporary Iranian playwright, Akbar Raadi, under the title Aheste Bâ Gol-e-Sorx (Slowly with Rose). The main objective is using the two ways mentioned earlier and to give a vivid stylistic illumination of the play. It will be seen that powerful and challenging characters are identifiable by studying above-mentioned factors, and the results have been presented in tables and charts for a better understanding.

Animation, in its shape and content, originates from imagination; its most important characteristic is the actualization or materialization of endless imaginations. The art of animation, when its variety of techniques and attractiveness is considered, is warmly accepted by a wide range of audiences across the globe. With the emergence of television and its serious need for this art, animations gradually moved towards industrialization. All these, with its importance in today’s world to achieve both cultural and financial goals, led various artists to be attracted to and employed in this huge industry. This large group of human resources is actually the building block of this industry which has made it change from its initial shape as an absolute art to an enormous industrial enterprise. Though there is not much of animation history in Iran when compared with pioneer countries, Iran can be considered as having a relatively long background in Asian animation. While half a century is passed since the first time animation was produced in Iran, this art-industry has not yet improved much for many reasons such as the employment of people with non-related degrees and misemployment in the production line of the projects as well as the shortage of professional employees and lack of a comprehensive insight about animation industrial productions as an influent and profitable industry by policy-makers. It seems that part of this disadvantage is due to mismanagement in the process of animation production. In this research, having some influent indexes of management examined, reasons for the Iranian animation failure in the 2000th decade are studied. The philosophical basis of the research is positivistic, oriented toward applied uses. The analogical approach of the research is supported by a qualitative-quantitative field survey. The present study is a descriptive one equipped with data gathering, interviews and questionnaires. Lacking an organized model of pathological study of industrial animation production in the last decade, the Delphi method was used to serve as a model of study. To analyze the given data, the Freedman variance statistic test was utilized in order to classify the preferences of the experts’ views. The results of the research showed the below indexes atop the list of experts’ approval percentage in the production field among many other indexes: Lack of a standard structure for industrial production in the studios, managers’ unfamiliarity with the proper method of mass production, ignorance about the principles and bases of human resource management in studios, manager’s being unaware about marketing and distribution techniques, lack of cooperation with great international companies and lack of commitment to a high-quality production. The results also categorize the below indexes as next indexes in line, as to the ordering management: unfamiliarity of managers with the mass production conditions in animation industry and lack of a valid technical supervision.In the end, the findings criticize managers for their distrust in younger production teams and their usage of other cultures that are not quite compatible with our culture.

This paper investigates computer games and their presences in the current routines. It introduces this audio-visual medium itself, its outcomes and the effects of its appearance into the domain of our mental life. Moreover, it presents a comprehensive historical analysis in the matters of Games and Computer Sciences. Its methodology is contained by social sciences methodology, literary theory, and film critiques, but as the subject matter is an absolutely new one, a new-media discourse would be emerged by merging the named methodologies and a new jargon. The authors assumed that computer games are in the “art family” since a work which can seduce its human audiences and even gives them a virtual life; then the work could be called an “art”, conceptually. By the way, considering computer game as a media art, with regard to the distinction of representational and simulational art is in the outlines of this paper. In expressing the necessity of the research it is noticeable that according to the world marketing databases, the portion of trading computer games is equal to the great market of movie productions. Besides, as there are some great multinational corporations which are engaged in providing and disseminating of productions of computer games, the increasing importance of computer games, and their potentiality in absorption of audiences is obvious. These newfound positions of computer games make an academic necessity to conduct research on their aspects. Based on the “immersion” concept, the authors of this paper find the distinctions and similarities of two relative concepts, “the Viewer” and “the User”. They scrutinize the problematic of “the Agency of the audience” in Computer Games and present some theoretical strategies to illustrate new perspectives in order to facilitate the understanding of the true situation of the audience in confrontations with computer games. The discourse which this paper comes from, relates to a new academic discipline that its most important specificity is interdisciplinarity. The research area of new media studies has rooted in social sciences, fundamental sciences and engineering, philosophy and theory of art; and this conceptual and methodological richness, aside its newness, provoke deep lingual and thematic complications. While pioneers of new media studies assume the classic media studies as only the prerequisite for the multidimensional and difficult discussions of the discipline, but the other problem lies in the translational quality of this work. Present article in fact is a translation of the discourse of computer game studies, and at best, it can introduce a new academic discipline, with election of some scholars’ ideas. With regard to mentioned achievements, now it’s obvious that the audience of Computer Games stands far from the position of the classic viewer. But this new user/ audience position has many more possibilities to research about. According to theories that are cited in this article, we can recognize this position in the contrary of the Agentship situation, or we think about it as the perfect embodiment of the Agentship concept. However current article, while proposes these two theoretical orientations, remains neutral about the subject.