نشریه هنرهای زیبا - هنرهای نمایشی و موسیقی
پیاپی 78 (تابستان 1402)

Mawwal is one of the literary arts of poetry that was created for singing. Its initial form was eloquent poetry, which gradually changed to slang with a variety of accents, especially Bedouin. It was classified as a subsection of popular music and became an improvisational musical format known as nūbāt repertoire in the Arabic oriental world (Mashriq). This research examined the history and emergence of the Mawwal and the difference about its origin, then crossed to the etymology of the term Mawwal – Mawwalia and showing all of its possibilities. Also the historical transformations of this poetical form is discussed. The musical form initially originated in Iraq in its quadrilateral form. It then transformed into an alternative form, known as the pentagonal, when it reached Egypt. Afterward, it returned to Iraq and evolved into its heptagonal form. Eventually, the musical form made its way to Syria. Since al-Mawwal al-Sharqawi (heptagonal) is the dominant Mawwal in the nūbāt performance, his literary style has been analyzed and described through dialect, terms and letters used, rhyme, enumeration of poetic verses, paronomasia or pun (similar words) and poetic content (general theme). After that the analysis of the heptagonal Mawwal as a musical form in the Syrian nūbāt was started through models of the Aleppo singer Sabah Fakhri and a comparison with the period before and after him and the differences between each period. Through this analysis, this research attempts to derive a specific musical form for the heptagonal Mawwal form in al- nūbāt, while it is an improvised form and does not have specific musical rules agreed among musicians. This research begins by deconstructing the predominant order of conducting the Mawwal parts in the nūbāt and the repeated parts in it. And then a maqam analysis of each part of the Mawwal and where the vocal and maqami peak lies and where the maqam transitions of the same maqam family or for different maqam families and reference to the stage of musical suspension and conclusion. Finally, an extract a musical form of the heptagonal Mawwal template in this way (A B A) and in more detail by indicating the numbers of the poetic parts A (1 + 2 + 3) - B (4 + 5 + 6) - A (7) is shown. This supports the fact that Sabah Fakhri relied on a certain methodology and style in the performance of his mawāwīl, where he used certain melodic and rhythmic phrases that were repeated in most of them. That is, it was based on rules taken from the heritage form, similar to the mawāwīl that preceded it within the nūbāt and greatly influenced the mawāwīl that followed it. The method of this research is deductive and historical with regard to the process of description and analysis. We have gathered fundamental data from various sources, including the analysis of musical performances, analysis of lyrical texts, observations, and interviews. These sources serve as the main foundation for this research.

This article examines the foundation of musical form from the perspective of motion and force in Franco Donatoni’s Cadeau, using a semiotic approach. We start by exploring the essence of musical signs, with a focus on the intricate examination of motion and force, commonly referred to as kinetics, as a distinct sign category nestled within the profound framework of Peirce’s sign triad. Also, we review the concept of visuality in music, as well as the fundamental roots of this concept using Peirce’s semiotic system. Visual signs are metaphorical representations of musical entities that vary in the mind of each interpreter. However, these metaphors share a common foundation, which is the type of motion and force within them. Due to the temporal nature of music and the existence of the dual tension and release, which is synonymous with the concept of energy, music can be associated not only with imagery but also with deeper layers of motion and force. With focusing on Donatoni’s Cadeau, this article demonstrates that musical signs are of an indexical nature and require interpretation to be meaningful, requiring a specific type of listening behavior. This type of listening is referred to as Figurativization. Delalande findings are in coordination with Peirce’s semiotic law of the triadic relationship and thus elements in music that embody motion and force can be interpreted as meaningful. Subsequently, the 19 temporal units called TSU (Temporal Semiotic Units), developed by Delalande et al., are employed as the basis for analyzing the form of Cadeau, which is referred to as kinetic analysis. This article demonstrates that Donatoni utilizes the techniques of vertical simultaneity (superimposition) and horizontal adjacency (juxtaposition), represented by the TSUs of “heaviness”, “wanting to start”, and “obsessive” as the primary themes in the structural composition of the piece. The composer utilizes the superimposition technique with two intentions. In the first phase, he aims to create a background where both previous ideas and new ideas can coexist simultaneously, allowing the listener to have the past before them. In the subsequent phase, he employs the simultaneity of TSUs to create a segment that is independent of the initial parts. On the other hand, by employing the technique of juxtaposition along the horizontal axis, without thematic expansion in a classical manner, he transforms the previous sections into new states that are not intended to evoke new TSU formations. In addition, the necessity of using kinetic signs as a tool for the formal analysis of musical works is elucidated. The article shows that in Cadeau, Donatoni employs time-stretching techniques on motifs, using TSUs that are resilient to repetitive patterns. These segments introduce an idea of infinite time, as if they are eternal and non-time-bond, with no conceivable end. Additionally, Donatoni is influenced by Bartók’s compositional approach and embraces rhizomatic thinking, which signifies the absence of linear thematic expansion. In Cadeau, the composer strives to create a non-linear form by employing rhizomatic thinking and utilizing non-time-bond segments, challenging the perceptual experience of temporal progression from a phenomenological perspective.

The emergence of new approaches to form and content in cinema has led to the creation of diverse and numerous genres and subgenres, which are derived from the combination of primary genres and modes. Additionally, the use of innovative techniques in various stages of film production has occasionally resulted in the formation of hybrid genres and modes, necessitating a deeper analysis and understanding of these cinematic developments. This research aims to examine and analyze such new approaches in cinema by studying and summarizing contemporary theories. Therefore, in order to analyze these methods and new genres, which also exhibit a significant abundance, there is a serious need for more advanced analytical approaches. These approaches should be based on solid foundations, rooted in new theoretical frameworks, and capable of being utilized as a unified theory for film analysis, either in a specific case or in a broader context, to examine genres and subgenres in cinema. Based on this premise, this article focuses on examining and analyzing new domains in contemporary cinema based on Alain Badiou's ontological thought, which is grounded in set theory in mathematics. In the first stage, an attempt is made to elucidate this ontological theory to identify its formation grounds and its points of differentiation from major approaches in contemporary philosophy, and to open up avenues for developing a new approach to film analysis. Next, the structural oppositions in Badiou's theoretical concepts are extracted and classified in the elements of form and content in mockumentary film, in order to observe their impact on the structure of such filmmaking. By examining the theoretical roots of Badiou’s ideas among major contemporary philosophical theories, their origins and differentiations are explored, and a general framework of Badiou’s philosophy is. Then, the fundamental concepts and oppositions in Badiou’s theory are examined in the truth procedure, and their potential for providing an analytical approach to mockumentary filmmaking is investigated. Finally, according to this pattern, four mockumentary films are categorized and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical approach, providing an overall analysis of mockumentary cinema. The results demonstrate that the derived pattern from Badiou’s theory can be effectively employed in the analysis of mockumentary cinema, describing and analyzing the functioning of structural elements in these films through the creation of oppositions and dualities. This approach can also contribute to a better understanding of documentary cinema by analyzing the relationships and oppositions between its elements and the elements of fiction film. Furthermore, it is observed that the dualistic oppositions of reality/truth, art/non-art, and pure/impure in Badiou’s ontological theory in art and cinema can be significant and decisive in the analysis of form and content in mockumentary filmmaking. The dualistic elements present in mockumentary films and the oppositions in these ontological concepts elucidate what is represented in documentary cinema. In conclusion, such an approach can be effective in understanding, describing, and analyzing mockumentary cinema as well as having an impact on documentary filmmaking.

Cinema is intertwined with politics. Political systems have tried to control and use cinema for their own advantage. The genre that is called "FilmFarsi" and produced in the years before and after the revolution in 1979 has served a political function.FilmFarsi refers to popular and commercial cinema in the 1950s to 1980s; although, as a cinematic genre, it was also produced after the Islamic revolution and continues today. This genre was often romantic popular melodramas with simplification of characters and situations. FilmFarsi seems to display the modernization of Iranian society and its conflicts and challenges with tradition. Of course, these challenges were often very unpretentious and superficial. Dancing and singing were elements of this genre, to which the critics became culturally sensitivite, and after the revolution, these aspects and traits of films were considered vulgare and trite,  and therefore, these types of films were seized to be produced.In this article, we will deal with the Jahel, Loti, Lumpen and Kolah Makhmali (velvet hats) in popular cinema to explain how and why these characters appeared in the Iranian cinema and how they show the mentality, dreams and aspirations of the people of the time. To address these questions, by using the methodology of discourse analysis, in order to study the narrative structure, grammatical and visual system of the films, we have paid attention to three levels: descriptive analysis, discourse action and social function of the text of films.Our findings show that the character (Jahel, Loti, Lumpen, Kolah Makhmali) has two opposite sides, positive and negative. On the one hand, as a Dervish, he is indifferent to the world and worldly possessions, and on the other hand, like a lumpen, he seeks benefits and wealth in any way possible. Little by little, from the 1950s to the 1970s, the positive image of this charcter in the Iranian cinema decreased and his negative and rebellious images persisted in the public cultrue.Jahel in the cinema became a symbol of male authority and protection of traditions, especially in the face of strangers. They were the sign of the tradition who maintained religious customs, although they were flexible and could connect these traditions with modernity. The discursive function of FilmFarsi, especially films centered on the Jahel, was the narration of coexistence and the connection of traditional and modern aspects; A narrative that was of interest to Pahlavi II cultural institutions; Because in that time the conflict between traditional and modern forces was becoming radicalized and the concern about the gap in values was causing the society to face a crisis.Also, Jahel character (or Lumpen, Kolahmakhmali) in popular cinema was able to building fantasy world, by simplification social phenomena such as social rupture (between traditional and modern), cultural distance (between elite and ordinary), class gap, and Conflict of interest (minority and majority), to make people's dreams and aspirations come true. By constructing these falsified facts, they reproduce the hegemonic political system and establish social order.

This article tries to deal with the relationship between image and reality. Cinematic reality is a special, continuous and dialectical connection that, due to its nature, is consistent with human experiences on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can involve the human thoughts. In this sense, the image must be superficial which destroys any necessary relationship between a specific form and a specific mental content. This is a philosophical approach to cinema. According to Jacques Rancière, cinema has always been a favorable field for examining philosophical approaches. Rancière recognizes moving images as a factor that, due to their nature, involve the audience in a kind of association and thinking process. According to him, cinema is the only art that is complete with the audience. In the cinema, a double situation arises in which the viewer is involved in the passivity of the image that is represented and also affected by the image as the agent of liberating his imagination. According to Rancière, this double situation takes the spectator out of the passive state and brings him into an active and dynamic stream so that he can feel and act at the same time as s/he watches. This dynamic of the image considers cinema as a collective and shared writing, where the viewer has a share in creating something that is exclusive, collective and shared at the same time, but allows the viewer to participate in this shared thing in their own way. In this article, the aesthetic procedure of such a heterogeneous process is examined and its boundaries with the cinematic frame are also considered. For this purpose, the film "The Wind Will Carry Us” by Abbas Kiarostami has been selected as a study example. The main question is how the image is able to establish, in an aesthetic format, a permanent and coherent dialectic and at the same time heterogeneous and opposite between the idea and the form, in such a way that it does not exactly contain the idea nor completely negates it; rather, it should be the basis of an endless and constructive process. Among the works of Abbas Kiarostami, the film "The Wind Will Take Us" is able to represent such a process more than his other works. In this film, two symbolic functions (the order of images) and organic functions (the flow of life), connect the two realms of ideas and meaning in the cinematic image in such a way that the image goes out of its usual function, and releases the power that is the origin of fluidity and flow. It is pure life. As a result of this link, the images make their impact not from reality, but from moments that have been able to establish a relationship between thinking and perception that reveals a contradictory and dual situation and shows the pattern of methods that cause the collapse of previous and certain structures by re-establishing a link between human and social existence.

Language plays a fundamental role in Akbar Radi’s works. Therefore, language-based approaches can help us understand their dramatic action. This article analyzes “From Behind the Windows” from a linguistic stance by using William O. Beeman’s views. William O. Beeman (1947- ), an American anthropologist, considers language as a tool for exercising power and indicating the different statuses of people in social situations. He examines every action, regardless of its moral value, or its unethical burden, from the perspective of its communicative role. His book, Language, Dignity and Power in Iran (1986), is important from two aspects: first, it is a suitable model for us to see how anthropological studies can serve linguistic and dramatic studies; second, it helps us see our character as an Iranian from the perspective of an external observer. Therefore, it can be a suitable model in creating language-oriented drama and can be used in analyzing the behavior of Iranian characters. In this book, every action, regardless of its moral value or its unethical burden, is examined from the perspective of the communication role.  According to Beeman, there are two categories of symbolic cultural contrasts that shape the control aspect of communication events. Internal/external opposition and hierarchy/equality opposition. In his book, Beeman does not cross these two categories of opposition, but one can also see a kind of correlation between them, which occor in the play “From Behind the Windows”. This play depicts the thirty-year life of Bamdad and Maryam and their family relationship with Mrs. and Mr. Derakhshan. During these thirty years, while the Derakhshans are always progressing, Bamdad and Maryam are pushing back both in their private and social lives. Furthermore, we show that the atmosphere governing the discourse between the two couples in the show, as well as the atmosphere governing the discourse of each couple, is a kind of intermingling of internal-external and hierarchical poles. During the 30 years of family relationship, we have increasingly witnessed the formation and expansion of the intimate relationship between two couples. One witnesses economic and social advancement of the second couple, and the rule of the “host-guest” position creates a hierarchical relationship between the two couples.  In conclusion, “From Behind the Windows” is a work that is completely based on two opposites, and in this play, Akbar Radi, in the form representing two lifestyles, allows the audience to decide which is better: “science or wealth”. Certainly, analyzing the play at the lexical level (as Beeman describes in his book), can provide the audience with more information about the power relations in the play. Also, a similar research in other works of Akbar Radi can help clarify the power relations between exemplary characters in Radi's works. In the same way, a similar research in the works of other Iranian playwrights that is based on the language, will be useful and enlightening.