Journal of Fine Arts: Performing Arts and Music
Year:2020 | Volume:24 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

The analogy between music and language was common from antiquity. During the Renaissance and the growth of humanism, renewed interest in linguistic disciplines was to have profound effect on virtually all aspects of academic and artistic endeavors throughout Europe. During this time, music was considered not only as a numerical or speculative science but also as a linguistic one; Music was the means of exegetic expressing, transmitting the concepts of the text. This view shaped the deep connection between music and rhetoric and this interrelationship evolved over the Baroque period. The increased significance of language and linguistic disciplines resulted in a growing influence of rhetorical concepts on musical thought. Therefore, musicians tended to exploit the persuasive power of rhetoric to use in the musical compositions. The German baroque composers seeking to emphasize the orderly and eloquent construction of pieces, used rhetorical structure and musical-rhetorical figures in musical contexts. Johann Sebastian Bach, under the influence of the compositional German baroque tradition, wrote various compositions based on rhetorical principles of the baroque music. Hence, in order to achieve a deep understanding of the music of J. S. Bach, identification of the rhetorical aspects used in his works cannot be ignored in the interpretative process. The present study, first explains the historical interrelationship between music and rhetoric, then with a glimpse of the structural principles of rhetoric in oratory, delineates the application of these rules in the creation of a musical composition and then describes Mattheson’ s rhetorical model of musical creation in a comparative manner. Finally, this study investigates the rhetorical structure and musical-rhetorical figures in the Prelude from cello suite no. 3 in C major BWV 1009; the Prelude was analyzed based on Mattheson’ s rhetorical model of composition. This model divides the process of musical creation into five stages based on rhetorical canons: inventio, dispositio, elaboratio, decoratio, and executio. The rhetorical analysis of the prelude showed that a flawless rhetorical structure was designed in the stage of dispositio, which contains six-part divisions: exordium, narratio, propositio, confirmatio, confutatio, and peroratio. The exordium was found in mm. 1-2; the narratio was set in mm. 2-7; the propositio was expanded in mm. 7-45; the confirmatio was occurred in mm. 45-71 with the subdivision part of the digressio in mm. 61-71; the confutatio was settled in mm. 71-82; finally, the peroratio was founded in mm. 82-88. In addition, some musical-rhetorical figures were identified in this Prelude. For instance, J. S. Bach used the tirata perfecta figure in both exordium and peroratio sections and applied the abruptio figure in the confutatio section. These figures were used in order to arouse affections in the listener and to represent particular concepts based of the Baroque musica poetica tradition. This descriptive-analytic study shows how J. S. Bach used musical elements, such as rhythm, silence, intervals, harmony, etc. and the rhetorical modes of persuasion (ethos, logos, and pathos) appropriately in a perfect rhetorical structure, attempting to affect the listeners and to gain their persuasion.

The paper, initially, explains the traditionalists view, illustrating their reason, on importance of traditional arts in Islamic history and civilization. The author compares traditionalist and modern consideration of beauty, and explains the symbolism strategy, which is based on matching of perceptible forms and eternal truths (in platonic heaven). The sacred art forms, then, should be in accordance with non-physical truths beyond the space and matter. This paper describes how any individuation of characters and events is not legitimate in traditionalist view. It refers to traditionalist leaders who deprecate temporal and local elements in art; according to which cinema and novel are evaluated as mediums without required capacity to be sacred. The author, then, illustrates the ontology of universal truths according to Islamic philosophy, and their relation with particulars. To do so, he begins by delineating two key doctrines of Hikmat-Mutaa'lieh ontology: the world of universals or Platonic Ideas (‘ ā lam al-muthul) and the discontinuous imaginal world (‘ ā lam al-mithā l al-munfaṣ il). In Mulla-Sadra’ s view, as the paper describes, there is a universal in the world of intellectual forms for each natural kind; a universal truth from which all instances of the kind come into existence and which is present in all of these particulars. Intellectual forms are self-subsistent, function, as spirits for specific forms, and the perceptible forms are their embodiments; that is, their shadows. For the intellectual forms are fine-grained, and these embodiments are coarse-grained. The world of intellectual truths is the lowest stage of abstract worlds, and is (in lower causal stages) the gateway to the physical world, so to speak. The discontinuous imaginal world is, nevertheless, a physical world (with shapes, dimensions, and temporality), though it is different from material corporeality, spatiality, and temporality, intermediated between non-physical and material world. Imaginal forms are manifestations or loci of the revelation of intelligible forms; that is, whatever exists in the world of Muthuls has a weaker degree of existence in the Mithal world. The author, after providing an account of the nature of these two worlds, considers some of their functions for, and effects on, creativity and symbolism in art. Since there is an important step in downward creation/causation from Mutul intellectual ideas to Mithal perceptible forms, and art, in many cases, deals with bringing meanings down to forms, and meanings are considered as abstract and immaterial, and physical forms are closely tied to sensory objectivity. The author, finally, concentrates on universals manner of existence in Muthul world according to Sadra’ s philosophy, which includes immaterial unity and flowing existence among its particulars, at the same time. Thus, temporal and local perceptible forms not only can refer to their relative non-physical universals, but also include the presence of these universals. Therefore, as the author explains, it is not necessary to have a direct reference to absolute existence of universal truths in term of unindividuated forms. The paper concludes that cinema has a remarkable capacity to represent immaterial truths in case of their relevant particulars, and, contrary to traditionalists, to be one of the sacred arts.

The present research investigates the extent of realization of the author's goals in the book "Teaching Guitar Instruction to Iranian Children. " In this research, we try to study the principles and the different schools of thought represented in the book, as well as the effectiveness of the method that is proposed. We also try to examine the validity of the author's claim to humanistic education, as well as the psychology of the growth of Jean Piaget and also the Berlin School. In order to achieve this goal, qualitative research with interviews from experienced instructors using this method have been used and then we analyzed their responses and examined solutions for the improvement of the different criteria that was examined in the methodology. In this research, we try to explain all details with different diagrams, tables and also some quotations from different research fellows who are interested in fields which are related to teaching children and education. In this research we, unfortunately faced some restrictions. For example, the number of experienced teachers who have used this method was limited and some of them did not express their real criticism of the book because of their personal relationship with the author. In order to overcome this shortcoming, we try to reflect some real and transparent feedbacks of utilizing this book by using it as a teaching method on a control group of students, in hopes that this method can have a great impact in advancement of education and teaching methodology in this region as well as this research. In fact, there are different aspects that should be considered in writing an effective teaching and educational method. For example, in this case, localization, disciple-centered and some other facts have been considered by the author in order to make the distinctive method of this cited book. The teachers had different opinions about teaching this method. Generally, most of them accept this book as a good reference for teaching and educating guitar in almost all parts and sections. But there are some hard parts for them and also for children which were incomprehensible. Such as some games or instructions and also some points and facts in the introduction of book, and it shows that the author should have a review in some parts of the book. Almost all of the teachers noted that the facts and principles which the author encountered with, in writing this book, was successful and the book lead them in a good way which resulted in a good educational system and finally in the upbringing a good musician. But this book needs a good review in the introduction and also in the index of the games which are utilized by the teachers. With the results of this research it is hopeful that the improvements of the book can lead it to becoming a good reference for the teachers’ society and it can be published with more circulation in different cities consisting of diverse cultures and traditions and also speeches and dialects.

Virtual reality animation is a new trend whose narrative genre is interactive storytelling. On the one hand, it is similar to the cinema thus the author's decision on narration is at the discretion of the author, and the viewer has no role in ending the story, and on the other hand, it is similar to the gaming genre, and the viewer enters the story space through the displays on the head of virtual reality and can be a part of the story. It is the interactive form of the information that is appealing, but it is not the player's audience. In this case, virtual reality has a place between knowledge and instrumentality. In this new medium, in addition to narrative techniques, physical equipment is also effective in enhancing the engagement of the audience. By placing screens on its head, the audience enters a computer-modeled three-dimensional space, and with 360 degrees of freedom, it can see the scene in which the story is going to happen, the camera whose eyes are the audience is in his possession and not that of the director. At one hand, similar to cinema, in this particular type, it is the author who decides about narration and the participant has no say in the closure of the story; on the other hand, it is similar to games, in which a participant enters into the story space through screens s/he puts on his head and has the ability to pursue the parts of data which s/he finds interesting. It is interactive but the participant is not a player. In the discussion about the interactive storytelling, there have always been two philosophical attitudes: one is the user’ s freedom in choosing the closure of the story, and the other is proposing the possibility of interaction in a fake way. In this paper, the emphasis is on the latter. VR is is the outcome of digital media and it seems has inherited most of its features; one of them is the logic of database which offers all of the information to the participant and unlike cinema’ s use of montage, it doesn’ t prioritize between them, and with the freedom of 360 degrees, participants can pursue the scene in which the story occurs. The viewer, thus, and not the director, controls the camera (the eyes of the participant). This paper focuses on how this tool can be used to create narrative animations, something more than the current usage, and if narrative animation can be produced in the VR, then, comparing with the classic narrative formats like movies and known interactive formats like games, how much the participant and the author’ s share has been changed. With the presence of the participant in a narrative space, it is possible to produce a narrative animation in which the participant has an active role in creating narration without disturbing the author’ s work as a whole. Paying attention to similar topics in interactive storytelling and comparing narrative in film and play help identify more narratives in this form.

The notion to categorize and identify different kinds of literature and arts has a great importance. In order to investigate the essence and functions, a set of hypotheses known as the Genre Theory has been created. This theory can be followed to Aristotle’ s thesis about kinds of poetry. In the middle of the 20th century, the neo-Aristotle school was formed to confront the new critique school which believed in literature free from any restraints, any cross-references or dependence and relationships with works of literature and they gave credit to avant-garde artists who didn’ t pay attention to any established rules or conventions. Conversely, Aristotelians stood against these beliefs and supported the genre theory of the late 1930’ s and early 1940’ s which ultimately referred back to the romantic school’ s period. It was this confrontation that lead other theorists of another art disciplines to attempt to renew the use of this theoretical device in their own specific fields of study. Genre Interpretation is one of the most common and important topics in cinematic arts criticism and theory. Andre Bazin and Robert Warshow were the first ones who examined the notion of genre in cinema. But serious and systematic studies were not done until the late 1960’ s. Firstly, most of works that were examined were westerns and in the other genres the primary theories were not adopted by all. But it was just a beginning. Writers like Lawrence Alloway, Jim Kitses, Edward Buscombe, and Tom Ryall are among the first generation of Cinema’ s genre theory scholars. They founded a fundamental tribune for future researches. Film genre is always attributed with three dimensions of the artistic production triangle: artist-work of art-audience. Then, there is no doubt that social function – i. e. basic thematic of the article-in relation with audience aspect of the triangle is a basic part of each film genre. Generally, in film genre and specially, in Semantic-Syntactic approach of Rick Altman which is the most comprehensive theorist about film genre, social functions are investigated in two contexts: ideology and ritual-myth. The ideological part is investigated in accordance with Althusser’ s view of the ideology’ s notion but the ritual-myth aspects mostly have been derived from Claude Levi-Strauss’ s hypothesis about myths-although this is only a catalyst for Altman’ s opinions of the ritual side of film genre. The article’ s case study is “ Samurai Genre” or “ Chambara” (its Japanese name) as a famous and genuine non-Hollywood film genre. The Chambara ideology in contrast with usual reductive thoughts is not a uniform text but through several decades in line with political, social and cultural changes has been has shown variable phases. On the other hand, the ritual-mythological context roots in the feudal warriors’ culture in the name of Samurai and generally, Japanese society codes of honor in the feudal era. In this research, the examinations of the ideological and ritual-mythological aspects of Samurai genre reveal an apparent view on interactions of the genre with society and audiences through 1900’ s to mid 1970’ s.

In the history of contemporary art and culture, especially since about the last half of the centu-I ry, the Prague Quadrennial (PQ) has played a significant role in explaining the stage design and its related arts. Given the process in the history of the event, initially an international exhibition of stage design called ‘ Stage Design and Theater Architecture’ gave an independent identity to its traditional function making it always meaningful within a play. Throughout the process, given the new approaches to the event’ s changes and development, and the importance of the participation of influential artists, it was renamed the ‘ Stage Design and Space, ’ thus realizing its new approaches. The result of these experiences, on the one hand, affects the definitions and frameworks of stage design and space design, and on the other, challenges the artists of this area and their experiences. The main approaches in explaining the contemporary stage design and changing its horizons discussed in the present study include stage design as performance, shared space, performance space or unsustainable architectural space, objects, and makers, among others. This ar-design is out of its traditional form. This incident allows for the design of the scene to be unconnected to the text and the director and to be presented during the course of the event itself. In the space segment, a fresh look at the creation and field of space for a scene designer, including weather, music, and political space. In the area of sustainable architecture, the stage design draws out of theater halls and into urban space. Makers are the part in which their design and construction process function as a kind of implementation. Studying and e v aluating the development process of PQ and drawing its main lines as a rich set can provide more research backgrounds and, on the other hand, PQ’ s policies during the periodic programs are responsible for several changes in the design of contemporary stage design. Among these policies, are A. creating transformation and preventing the conc e ptual stability of the stage design, which seems to be influenced by the post-modern life. B. dynam i c and continuous experimentation, bringing creative solutions. C. freedom of action during these experiences is the basis of new approaches for participants. D. flex-ticle tries to answer how the PQ experiences, defi-ibility and the provision of change in programs that nitions, and the context of the design of the scene and space affect the framework of a performance. According to the author’ s assumption, the four-year Prague art event is effective in changing the definitions and scope of contemporary stage design. As a result, the challenges and experiences of this interactive conference are explored at the PQ, and the definitions undergone fundamental changes in are the basis for greater convergence and the participation of experienced people. The present study is a qualitative research and of analytical and descriptive nature, employin the history of contemporary art and culture, especially since about the last half of the centu-I ry, the Prague Quadrennial (PQ) has played a significant role in explaining the stage design and its related arts. Given the process in the history of the event, initially an international exhibition of stage design called ‘ Stage Design and Theater Architecture’ gave an independent identity to its traditional function making it always meaningful within a play. Throughout the process, given the new approaches to the event’ s changes and development, and the importance of the participation of influential artists, it was renamed the ‘ Stage Design and Space, ’ thus realizing its new approaches. The result of these experiences, on the one hand, affects the definitions and frameworks of stage design and space design, and on the other, challenges the artists of this area and their experiences. The main approaches in explaining the contemporary stage design and changing its horizons discussed in the present study include stage design as performance, shared space, performance space or unsustainable architectural space, objects, and makers, among others. This ar-ticle tries to answer how the PQ experiences, defi-nitions, and the context of the design of the scene and space affect the framework of a performance. According to the author’ s assumption, the four-year Prague art event is effective in changing the definitions and scope of contemporary stage design. As a result, the challenges and experiences of this interactive conference are explored at the PQ, and the definitions undergone fundamental changes in the stage design during this influential process are analyzed. In the stage design section as a performance, a process is examined that shows the stage design is out of its traditional form. This incident allows for the design of the scene to be unconnected to the text and the director and to be presented during the course of the event itself. In the space segment, a fresh look at the creation and field of space for a scene designer, including weather, music, and political space. In the area of sustainable architecture, the stage design draws out of theater halls and into urban space. Makers are the part in which their design and construction process function as a kind of implementation. Studying and e v aluating the development process of PQ and drawing its main lines as a rich set can provide more research backgrounds and, on the other hand, PQ’ s policies during the periodic programs are responsible for several changes in the design of contemporary stage design. Among these policies, are A. creating transformation and preventing the conc e ptual stability of the stage design, which seems to be influenced by the post-modern life. B. dynam i c and continuous experimentation, bringing creative solutions. C. freedom of action during these experiences is the basis of new approaches for participants. D. flex-ibility and the provision of change in programs that are the basis for greater convergence and the participation of experienced people. The present study is a qualitative research and of analytical and descriptive nature, employing observations and library resources for collecting the data.

Art is an inseparable part of life which manifests in all aspects of human life. One of the most significant manifestations of art is decoration of parlors, circles and venues for various kinds of ceremonies. In general, these decorations are occasionally performed for ritual and religious ceremonies, sometimes for festivals and entertainments, and sometimes for funerals or mourning rites. According to the resources studied in this paper, the above mentioned decorations have already been used and people employed them in various ceremonies and other aspects of life. EIn fact, every part of the decoration had specific title, and its construction was related to particular professions and different masters. According to the existing evidences used in this article, in some of these parlors and ceremonies you could see manifestations of the performing arts which could be counted as scenic design; needless to say that its performance could be influenced by various issues such as time, place and social class. In fact, this included construction for decoration and design of the venue. One type of decoration being used in the past was the art of Nakhl – bandī done by the Nakhl-bands. They are made of wax, paper, fabric, mud, wood and all kinds of flowers, fruits and artificial trees with different colors and designs in order to beautifully decorate a place. To describe the words Nakhl-band and Nakhl-bandī in the verses where these exact terms have been used, some editors of the Davā vī n (poets collected lyrics) have briefly demonstrated them in the book margins and footnotes which we will mention in the article. As for the terminology of this art, two groups have paid particular attention because these two words Nakhl-band and Nakhl-bandī (and other related terms) figured in verses and prose texts: the first group was lexicographers who explained the term because of its use in manuscripts, and the other, commentators and editors of poets who almost entirely gave a short and wrong description. We shall also remind that none of the studies conducted in Iran, focused on the scenic designs based on the history of performing art, music and other artistic performances have pointed to this issue as an example of stage design art. Although studies have been carried out independently on the issue of mourning and Nakhl-gardā nī , as we see later, the issue of Nakhl-bandī and Nakhl – gardā nī have been misinterpreted and have been considered as one. No independent research on the history of Nakhl-bandi has been conducted, especially in the field of scenic design in Iranian culture; in fact, Nakhl-bandī is considered as a forgotten art. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to clarify the dimensions of this old art and to answer literary, historical, and technical questions related to the profession of Nakhl-bandī and explain the differences between Nakhl-bandī and Nakhl – gardā nī . This is a descriptive-analytical research and is based on the data extracted from the manuscripts and collected from libraries.

Cinema is a visual-based art, so the visual mechanism, which is the path to understanding the beauty of this art, should be recognized. Sight and everything that makes sense in this way are fundamental aspects of cinematic studies. During the life of cinema, how to watch a film has been repeatedly examined from a variety of perspectives. Transplantation of neuroscience, vision and cinema are new approaches that have been addressed over the last decade. So far, many studies have been conducted on the gender and cognitive differences of cinema audiences. Oversight studies are needed to prove the perceptual differences between the sexes that Neurocinematics studies provide this opportunity for cinema analysts. The present study aims to provide preliminary evidence for gender differences in eye movement patterns when watching a sequence of "separation" film. To do this, subjects, consisting of six men and six women, aged between 20 and 30, were exposed to three minutes of the opening sequence of a movie, in which the leading actor and actress are engaged in dialogue while facing the camera. We have focused on four five-second scenes. In the first scene, both actor and actress are silent, in the second scene, only the actress is speaking and the actor is silent and both are facing the camera, while in the third scene the actor is speaking and the actress is silent. In the last scene, the actor and the actress are quarreling and talking at the same time. Gaze points have been recorded by an eye-tracker. Eye tracking provides an objective measure of the visual patterns of participants that allow us to determine which elements in the picture are first and foremost concerned. This data can be used to determine the user's priorities. Detecting user behavioral changes allows us to recognize the tastes of users. The process of tracking how a person watches items on a movie involves two issues: saccades and fixation. The saccade is the simultaneous movement of the eyes in the same direction as it jumps from one fixation point to another. Although simultaneous, the eyes must pause on a specific area of the screen, and this is known as the fixation. The results indicate that both male and female observers gaze firstly at the speaker. They also suggest that whenever one of the characters is speaking, the observer of the same gender pays more attention to them. The audiences pay remarkable attention to the same gender when he or she is silent. These observations unveil important aspects of human gaze patterns and particularly reveal important gender differences of eye movement patterns. The findings of this study, on the one hand, reveal important aspects of visual patterns and, in particular, important gender differences. On the other hand, this study could be a good foundation for developing gender studies in cinema with the help of new tools, from the perspective of the study of Neurocinematics to the opening of the new window to cinema studies, to clarify some uncharted research in this field.