نشریه نامه هنرهای نمایشی و موسیقی
پیاپی 8 (بهار و تابستان 1393)

This research is going to study Akropolis performance by post structuralism perspective. Akropolis was directed by Jerzey Grotowski, famous polish director who is indubitably one of the most prominent theatre Directors and theorists in the second half of the 20th century. He has an important role in progression of experimental theatre and actor training techniques over the past decades. Akropolis was adapted from the Stanisław Wyspiański’s dramatic epic poem which was written between 1903 and 1904. The Main Play [Wyspiański’s poetic drama] was set on the night of Easter Saturday when Sculptures and paintings in the Wawel cathedral in Kraków were coming to life. The main theme of Akropolis is resurrection, considered not only as salvation from death, inertia and forgetting, but also as a task given to each human being. Grotowski performed Akropolis in Auschwitz. He changed the location of events to Auschwitz in order to find out how far Classic idea of human magnanimity could resist in new Era of Post-war tensions and decadence. The characters of performance constructed crematorium ovens from customs and iron rust which was located within the Auschwitz. Performers in this performance are both slaves in Auschwitz and famous historical characters such as Jacob, Helen, and Paris. Although this performance shows the ancient mythical story, the meaning of them is unclear. For instance, Christ is a doll and Paris fall in love with Helen as far as Helen is man. As all the performers are signs, they make an implementation system. In this system there is no final object so performance shows the absent of life with showing the existence of life. Characters in Acropolis are signs, which are moving in the space between two worlds, war camp and mythology world, since there is no center and signified, imply to each other. They have the spur of each other and Take part in the free play of signs and signify to each other. This implication system in the Akropolis performance was deconstructed based on Derrida philosophical theories. Conflicts and confrontations in the performing technique of Akropolis make a complex implication system, which postpone meaning and inception for the audience. Since the theater is based on the principle of delayed and differentiation, the meaning is always delayed. This qualitative study is descriptive and analytical. It surveys the performance theme by Derrida’s structuralism perspective. Some of the main aims of this research are to study Derrida’s deconstruction theory, survey the implementation of meaning and facts in Akropolis performance, to discover how implication deconstructed in Akropolis. Since the ‘threshold’ is one of the most important Components of Derrida’s theories, omparing the relationship between characters which were in threshold of crematorium ovens in Akropolis and Jacob threshold position in “battle between Jacob and angel” (one of the mythical story in performance) is the other significant aim of this article. In crossing the threshold, the only important thing is the energy of moving and in the view of Derrida this energy is meaning.

In this article we will compare four text-performance relation models including the literally model, the twotext model, the type model and the musical model. We will also discuss viewers’ comprehension according to each model. These four models represents fundamental different ways to conceive what will happen when a performance makes use of a written text in performance and what happens when a performance makes use of no text. The answers can be found in these models. Based on their perspective, theatre practitioners prefer one of these models. Each model articulates five things: what aspect of the text is presented in the performance; what audiences would refer to when identifying a performance; what criterion or standard, if any, ensure such reference; whether the performance is considered a work of art by that model or not; and whether the written text is considered a work of art, and if so how. Here, we will give a brief description of each model: 1. The Literary model is based on this idea that theatrical performances are illustrations or interpretations of works of dramatic literature. 2. The two-text model is based on this idea that theatrical performances consist of “theatrical texts” to be read and are something like translations of their corresponding literary texts. 3. The type model is based on the ontology of theatrical (and musical) performances, holding that a performance is an instance of a kind (or “type”) that may have other (and other kinds of) instances, for example, a text or score. 4. The mosaic model is based on the idea that texts are used in performance in much the same way people use ingredients when they cook. In discussing each model, advocates and practical examples will be mentioned. Stanislavski and Jacques Copeau’s views for literally model; Gerald Rabkin, Arthur Miller and Tayroff`s views and also Grotowski, Blav an Performance Group’s works for two-text model; epic theatre, Commedia dell’arte and Erwin Piscator`s documentary theatre for literally model and Jean-Louis Barrault, Richard Forman and Robert Wilson for musical model will be studied. According to this study, literally model has more validity comparing to other models as comparison is possible due to written texts. Adaptation makes two-text model challengeable and capable of being interpreted. Literally model’s most common use has been in academia and criticism. Furthermore, knowing Type model helps to know the performances. These three models are more or less related to the performance text. Musical model believes in art independence. It’s relying more on theatrical details rather than language. To understand musical model-based performances, we need to study communicational ways between performers and viewers.

In addition to categorizing the four literary genres (tragedy, comedy, romance, and irony) into four mythoi (autumn, spring, summer, and winter), Northrop Frye, a contemporary structural critic, presents himself as an Odyssey critic who is enthusiastic about comedy. In addition to analyzing these four genres, he also considers their structural and character patterns. He believes in the mythological origin of comedy in ancient festivals celebrating the arrival of spring, and he presents a variety of theories on spring mythos and comedy. In this paper, which investigates character patterns in contemporary Iranian comedy, we have attempted to make comparisons between these patterns and the patterns presented by Northrop Frye regarding western comedy in order to identify and introduce them as a structure in contemporary Iranian comedy. Frye divides comedy characters into four categories: Agroikos, Alazon, Bomolochoi, and Eiron. Due to spatial limitations, this paper only explicates the first three categories of characters. Alazon is a charlatan who pretends to be something that he/she is really not. In other words, Alazon is the Bad Man and the antagonist of comedy who always hinders the protagonist from achieving his/her goals and getting to his/her sweetheart. Bomolochoi is a type of character that brings a festive and happy atmosphere and who does not participate in the progression of action. The oldest kind of this type of character is a parasite. Agrikos is a character with negative characteristics, yet his/her credulity causes Alazons abuse him/her. He/She is a stingy, selfish person who disrupts others’ pleasure. This paper recognizes these types of characters in contemporary Iranian comedy and expatiates on their comparative characteristics relative to the patterns presented by Fry. The research method for the paper is evaluation and morphology. This is done by sampling contemporary comedy scripts that were played and published during 1360-1390 in the solar calendar. The samples include seven contemporary comedy scripts. Sampling is done on three types of Iranian comedy: modern comedy, traditional comedy, and Laalehzaari comedy (boulevard comedy). Traditional comedy consists of traditional cheerful Iranian plays like “Siaahbaazi”, and modern comedy characteristically corresponds to New Comedy in the west. Out of the seven sample scripts, three are from modern comedy, three are from traditional comedy, and one is from Laalehzaari (boulevard) comedy. To attain reliable and standardized conclusions, this comparison is performed through a χ^2 one-tailed test with an error coefficient of 5%. In order to answer the main question of the research, we evaluate how closely the analyzed scripts match Frye’s theories. Finally, from a total of 35 data inputs for this research, 23 data inputs matched and 12 data inputs did not match Frye’s theories. This study’s results show that: 1. It is possible to use morphology on contemporary Iranian comedy characters by incorporating the critical pattern of Frye’s archetypical criticism. 2. Traditional, modern, and boulevard Iranian comedies are a little different in their character patterns from Frye’s patterns in western comedy.

Since the early days of cinema, depth of field has been used by film directors unconsciously. In 1940s, this phenomenon transformed into a cinematic style. Many great directors turned it into a dramatic vehicle and started to base their personal style according to depth of field’s characteristics. This phenomenon has had many uses in Iranian Cinema but very few studies can be found analyzing Iranian film makers’ ncounter with it. These articles are usually affected by cultural studies and have the same pproach to content and meaning. This is the reason why we have few researches about visual aspects and cinematic structures of the movies of Iranian cinema. This research is trying to investigate dramatic functions of depth of field through a descriptive-analytical approach. To achieve this, six Iranian films from 2001 to 2011 have been chosen as the statistical domain of the research: Bright Nights (Farzad Mo’tamen, 2001), I’m Taraneh, Fifteen Years Old (Rasoul Sadr Ameli, 2002), Gavkhooni (The River’s End) (Afkhami, 2003), Green Fire (Mohammad Reza Aslani, 2007), Day and night (Omid Bonakdar & Keyvan Ali Mohammadi, 2008) and A Cube of Sugar (Reza Mir Karimi, 2011). Different aspects of these films have been analyzed, so that the filmmaker’s approach toward depth of field becomes clear. It has to be mentioned that these films have been made by different generations of Iranian film makers. Pre-revolutionary (Aslani), the first generation of revolution (Sadr Ameli and Afkhami), the second generation of revolution (Mir Karimi and Mo’tamen) and the new generation (Tavakoli, Bonakdar and Ali Mohammadi). Also, these films have been well-received in internal and external festivals by film industry professional and critics. In the first part of this article a short introduction of development process of depth of field usage has been given and an attempt has been made to demonstrate the manner of usage of depth in cinematic image. Then, different levels of cinematic image will be introduced and the methods of using it will be analyzed. These levels consist of: background; mid-ground; foreground. To elaborate how Iranian directors function in different levels of cinematic image, some scenes of the chosen films will be analyzed. For example, some films put all levels of image into dramatic usage and create a dialectical relation between layers. In contrast, some other films set distance between layers and each layer is occupied in ordering its own visual structure. In the next part, more original views on depth of field and those Iranian directors who have succeed in enriching signified meanings of their films by using depth of field, will be discussed. In the next section, thematic tendencies and their picturing for enriching visual texture will be talked about. In the end of this study, a particular process will be investigated that will result in flat image. The aim of this research is to project Iranian directors of 2000s’ encounter with depth of field to reveal development of visual illustration of Iranian films in usage of different levels of image.

In this essay, happening of truth, as one of the most influential concepts of Heideggerian thought, and also its occurrence in the work of art especially film art, is meditated on and it is showed that how the concept of strife between concealment and unconcealment in the work of art, or a strife between world and earth-as Heidegger called it- in opposition to Cartesian dichotomy between subject and object, removes the domination of the audience over the film. Because in this approach audience is nevermore the subject positioning the film as the object of its consciousness, rather in an encounter with film as a way of happening and also via interpretation of the film, the audience contributes in revealing of truth in the film. The dwelling of the audience enables the POIESIS and makes the “happening” a poetical experience. We followed Heideggerian thought in considering “happening” in film in relation to the painting “A Pair of Shoes” by Vincent Van Gogh, since the language of images in film, at first, refers to Heidegger’s ideas in the»Origin of the Work of Art«. Thus, film interpretation refers to the “worlding of the earth”. The audience carries this interpretation to the ontological level in some respects. First, audience is the one who not only watches the images of film, but also preserves the “happening of truth”. In other words, without the audience, the WORLD does not unconceal itself, since there would not be anyone to interpret what audience sees. Thus, it slowly retreats from ontic investigation, since there is no reference point from which to categorize the conventions of both philosophy and art. Put simply, the “happening” cannot point to any source of reference, neither can interpretation. Second, significance is attributed to the film itself since, like the temple revealing in the earth or ground, the WORLD opened to audience interpretation dwells in the images of film, i. e., it is grounded in the film. The third way in which the audience brings interpretation to ontological level of analysis is through the audience. The audience is the preserver and witness to the unconcealment itself, thus taking part in the unconcealment of truth. The experience leads the audience to its own ontological investigation of understanding of the film, since every interpretation refers the audience back to an understanding of itself. This interpretation, constituted in the history of film theory, thus exceeds itself with the idea of interpretation in the Heideggerian sense. This interpretation also indicates the possibility of “being-in-the-world”. It opens the possibility itself since DASEIN refers to the possibility of existence. Hermeneutic Phenomenology, as our methodology, helps us to find out how film-viewing experience and encounter with it leads the audience to its own ontological investigation of understanding of the film, since every interpretation refers the audience back to an understanding of itself as Dasein-in-the-world, as an active engaged actor other than a mere observer inside the arena of Cartesian idea of calculative thinking and detached from being-in-the-world.

Most of Iranian comedy films, both before and after the revolution, can be categorized as romantic comedies. These films show the romantic relationships between men and women as something funny and create the Iranian romantic comedy genre. According genre theory, this study aims at understanding which values and beliefs are reinforced by the interaction between heroes and heroines in this genre. To do so, 62 Iranian romantic comedy films which had been screened at movie theaters in 1990 to 2011 got the structural analysis of the text. The structuralist approach aims to distil genres down to a generic narrative and relationship structure, where character types interact in structurally predictable ways. This approach is a combination of paradigmatic and syntagmatic analyses. The paradigmatic analysis depends on Levi-Strauss’ binary oppositions and eveals what the meaning is. According to Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale (1928), the syntagmatic analysis deals with roles of characters and their functions and shows how the meaning is expressed in the text. The syntagmatic and paradigmatic analyses of the Iranian romantic comedy films reveals that there are four basic generic sequences in this genre: the ownership sequence, the redemption sequence, the permission sequence and the rival sequence. The ownership sequence makes males and females into active subjects and passive objects. The redemption sequence has two types: the coldhearted and the brokenhearted, and each one has three versions: the redemption of the hero, the redemption of the heroine and the redemption of both the hero and the heroine. Although these versions differ slightly, all of them serve to reinforce the gender role of the defiant female. The permission sequence depicts a romantically involved hero and heroine who wants to marry but an authority figure disapproves of their marriage. Adding an authority figure to the romantic story, in fact, provides an opportunity for the hero to prove his perseverance. There are three versions of the rival sequence: the wrong man, the wrong woman and women against women. The first two empower the hero directly and the third one belittles women and actually empowers the hero again. While the narrative structure of the 52 Iranian romantic comedies follows a similar pattern, this pattern changes in 10 unconventional romantic comedies. By intentionally changing functions of four basic sequences, these films ignore the most important condition of conventional romantic comedies. It means that they do not often have a happy ending which depicts a wedding or a promise of a wedding. The narratives of 57 films also serve to reproduce the existing social order between males and females and reinforce the gender role of the defiant female. There are only five unconventional films (The Spouse, Sweet Passions, The White Sleep, Donya and The Poet of Waste) which ultimately question or challenge dominant gender conventions. As a matter of fact, the Iranian romantic comedy genre is a popular form of entertainment that naturalizes gender inequality.

The reason why “Bela Bartok” is the topic of this article is his uniqueness in the field of Folk Tunes. Bela Bartok was a very distinctive character in many fields and had one of the strongest pens in the 20th-century music. In addition, He was one of the founders of “Ethnomusicology”. About Bartok’s composition, it can be said that he was seeking a new method to work with folk melodies and did not aim to do as was common. He recovered an individual melody, processed it in its traditional manner, and then applied it into his composition. He also believed that he had a mission to understand the inner spirit of music and to create a new musical style based on the essentially inexpressible spirit. Therefore, in an attempt to gain a new method for composition with the materials of Persian music, I pondered through Bartok’s works, believing that his compositional techniques could be a great example or perhaps a true inspiration for Iranian composers. The major target of this article is to demonstrate Bartok’s approach in deriving some of his compositional techniques from arranging, transcribing and analyzing the folk music. Furthermore, the article goes on to show the deep connection between the themes used in Bartok’s works and his creative musical language. To attain this objective, certain aspects of folk tune’s styles are examined and compared with folk music arrangements and original compositions of Bela Bartok. Firstly with a glimpse into Bartok’s early works in the field of Folk Music, the sources of harmonic structures that have been used in his arrangements are discussed. The role of intervals function in the folk modes, are taken into consideration. Moreover, efforts have been made to show how the outcome of these studies set Bartok free from the tyrannical rule of major and minor keys and led to a new way of using the diatonic scale and eventually a new conception of the chromatic scale, in which every tone came to be considered of having an equal value and a capacity to be used freely and independently. Then the prevalent interval leaps in the peasant melodies and their impressions into moving towards poly-modality and consequently “polymodal chromatism” were examined. Furthermore, I studied Bartok’s vocal and piano arrangements and illustrated the use of “minor-seventh chords”, “quadral” and “quintal” chords, “the circle of fifths” and the “intervallic cells”. Additionally, I worked on the asymmetries, and influences of various folk modes in his works. Then, discussing several examples of Bartok’s works, influences of folk music in gradual formation of his specific musical language were analyzed and studied. Needless to say, this collection does not and cannot embrace all the wondrous aspects of Bartok’s compositional techniques, such as the field of Fibonacci series or Golden Section. Still, my hope is that it would possibly be an appropriate source for further researches and a good collection of his techniques and methods for composition, especially in working with Folk Music.

This study deals with one of the overlooked categories of Tarâne in Iranian’s rhythmic vocal music known as Bahr-e-tavil. The first section studies the structure of Bahr-e-tavil in Farsi poetry using library sources and descriptive methods; the second section by using quantitative and analytical methods and transcription, studies comparatively three categories of Bahr-e-tavil from the areas: Dastgâh-i music, North Khorâsân Maqâmi and Folk music from the modal, formal, and rhythmic point of view. To prove the threechords of this genre, the frequency of sample melodies has been evaluated through objective statistics and comparing melody parameters in separate tables. At each three selected samples then a significant difference has been seen among the three main melodies and other melodies of each Tarâne. The frequency of the chord choices has been evaluated through objective statistical consideration and the comparison of chord parameters in separate tables so as to prove the three chords character of the category. Through each sample, a meaningful difference can be observed between the three main chords and other chords of each “TARANE”. Beside the literal terminology and the study of these three choices as case study, this research has made an effort to introduce this category as the only narrative genre in which the content of the language and the narration of the story bear the leading role and the musical agents play the supporting role, so as to present the key supposition of this essay which proves that the natural characteristic genre is three chords. The chord scale of “BAHR-E-TAVIL” is less than one musical tetrachord and is only limited to the three main chords. Unlike other forms, its hemistiches don’t possess equality of prosodic headquarters and in fact don’t have equal hemistiches (in BAHR-E-TAVIL, hemistiches are called clause). The hemistiches of BAHR-E-TAVIL possess both end and middle rhytme and the rhytmes are created by repeating infinit numbers of pillar “faalaton”. The topic of BAHR-E-TAVIL is often a narrative story with love content, advice, religious great appraisal, or up to date social subjects that sometimes is accompanied by irony and humorous. The number of phrases is often more than 30 phrases. In Iranian music Bahr-e Tavil belongs to the field of MAGHAMI music of Iran, because it is one modal and one tide. However, in Iranian traditional music and DASTGAH-I music there are examples of several modol of Bahr-e Tavil.