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Notes/Persian/Music in Iran and Afghanistan (موضوع دوم: موسیقی)
Notes · PersianUK · A-Levels

Music in Iran and Afghanistan (موضوع دوم: موسیقی)

This topic carries the first sub-theme of Edexcel's second theme, موضوع دوم: رسانه‌ها و فرهنگ, media and culture. Theme 2 is the theme the specification describes as covering artistic culture past and present — music, and festivals and traditions — together with political culture, meaning media; that is why its two sub-themes fill the two artistic culture slots in the frozen topic scheme even though its research subject is about the media. Theme 2 is also the only theme in the whole specification that is set in the context of two countries: Iran and Afghanistan. A student who chooses its research subject must still write about one of them alone, and the unseen text supplied in Paper 1 Section C for a Theme 2 subject is deliberately written to be general in nature and equally relevant to both. This topic takes the first sub-theme, موسیقی, with its three aspects: changes and developments in music and in musical instruments, well-known kinds of music, and the influence of other cultures on music. Because the two-country scope is introduced here for the first time, this topic also carries the distinction between فارسی and دری and the reasons a comparison between the two countries must be handled as a comparison and not as a blur.

5 sections·~35 min reading time·4 competencies·Level Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·0333 / 12
Exam profile
AO1 · Understand and respond in writing to spoken Persian about music and performanceAO2 · Understand and respond in writing to written Persian of cultural and critical registerAO3 · Manipulate Persian accurately, using the vocabulary of music and complex structuresAO4 · Show knowledge and understanding of, and respond critically to, the musical cultures of Iran and Afghanistan
Operators:شرح دهیدتوضیح دهیدتحلیل کنیدمقایسه کنیدارزیابی کنیداستدلال کنیدنمونه بیاوریدترجمه کنید

basic level

At first-year standard the expectation is accurate naming: the Persian names of the main instruments, the difference between موسیقی سنتی and موسیقی پاپ, the fact that Theme 2 covers two countries, and a personal preference expressed in correct Persian with a secure ezafe chain.

higher level

The full A-Level expects the naming turned into argument. What does it mean to say a tradition has changed — the repertoire, the instruments, the audience, or the occasions? On what evidence does anyone claim that one culture has influenced another's music, and what would the alternative explanation be? Answers must keep Iran and Afghanistan distinct, must attribute every aesthetic judgement, and must use the passive, the subjunctive and relative clauses deliberately.

Depth

Reading depth: In depth

Text

Text size: Standard

Contents · 5 sections▾
  1. Music in Iran and Afghanistan (موضوع دوم: موسیقی)
    • 01Two countries, two names for one language (موضوع دوم و دو کشور)○
    • 02Instruments, modes and the shape of a tradition (تغییرات و تحولات در موسیقی و آلات موسیقی)◐
    • 03Well-known kinds of music, and who listens (موسیقی‌های مشهور)◐
    • 04The influence of other cultures (تأثیر فرهنگ‌های دیگر بر موسیقی)●
    • 05Writing about music without inventing anything (روش نوشتن درباره‌ی موسیقی)●
§ 01

Two countries, two names for one language (موضوع دوم و دو کشور)#

●○○FoundationLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 موضوع دوم: رسانه‌ها و فرهنگLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 1 Section A (translation into English)

Key points

Theme 2 is the exception in this specification and the exception is examinable. Themes 1, 3 and 4 are set in the context of Iran only; Theme 2 is set in the context of Iran and Afghanistan, and the specification says it covers artistic culture past and present — music, and festivals and traditions — together with political culture, meaning media. That double scope is why the theme's two sub-themes fill the two artistic culture slots in these notes while its research subject is about the internet. If you choose the Theme 2 research subject you must still base the research on one country only, either Iran or Afghanistan, and the specification tells teachers to consider cultural sensitivities in advising which. Examiners mark a Theme 2 answer positively by crediting whichever country yields the higher mark, but a candidate who writes about both simply wastes words.
Iran and Afghanistan are two states with different histories, different institutions and different recent experience, and the single most important habit this topic can build is the habit of not merging them. The language is a good place to start, because the naming is itself part of the content. In Iran the language is called فارسی. In Afghanistan the official name for the variety spoken there is دری, and Afghanistan has two official languages, دری and پشتو. A third variety, تاجیکی, is spoken in Tajikistan and written in Cyrillic; it lies outside this specification but knowing it exists stops you from treating فارسی and دری as the only two possibilities. The varieties are mutually intelligible and share a literary tradition, and they differ in pronunciation, in some vocabulary and in some official terminology.
Say that carefully, because it is easy to say badly. It is accurate to write that فارسی and دری are two names used, in two countries, for closely related varieties of the same language, and that each name carries its own official and national history. It is not accurate to write that one is a dialect of the other, and a candidate who does so has taken a position in a live dispute without noticing. The safe and analytically better sentence is: فارسی و دری دو نام رسمی برای گونه‌هایی از یک زبان‌اند که ادبیات مشترکی دارند و در تلفظ و برخی واژه‌ها با هم تفاوت دارند — two official names for varieties of one language which share a literature and differ in pronunciation and some vocabulary.
The practical consequence for revision is that you should build two example sets, not one. When you learn a musical instrument, an ensemble, a festival or a broadcaster, note which country it belongs to and whether it belongs to both. When you plan a Section C answer on a Theme 2 subject, decide the country first and then discard everything from the other set. And when a Paper 3 recording turns out to be Afghan rather than Iranian, you should be able to notice — from the vocabulary, from the pronunciation, from the institutions named — rather than being surprised by it. Paper 3 draws its listening material from across all four themes and the specification says it is culturally relevant to Iran and to Afghanistan, so both are genuinely examinable.
Worked example

Paper 1 Section A: a paragraph on musical tradition into English

Translate into English and justify each choice. «موسیقی سنتی در ایران و افغانستان ریشه‌های مشترکی دارد، اما هر کشور مکتب‌های خود را پرورانده است. نوازندگان هر دو سرزمین از شعر کهن فارسی بهره می‌گیرند، در حالی که سازها و شیوه‌های اجرا همیشه یکسان نبوده‌اند.»

  1. 01Sentence one: a shared subject with two verbs, and a perfect that matters

    موسیقی سنتی در ایران و افغانستان ریشه‌های مشترکی دارد gives: Traditional music in Iran and Afghanistan has common roots. ریشه‌های مشترکی is roots plus the indefinite ی on the adjective — the indefinite marker attaches to the last element of the phrase, which is a small point of Persian syntax worth noticing in translation. اما هر کشور مکتب‌های خود را پرورانده است is but each country has cultivated its own schools. مکتب here is a school in the sense of a tradition of practice, not a school building; خود را is the reflexive object; پروراندن, to cultivate or nurture, is a register-lifting verb and English should match it.

  2. 02Sentence two, first half: a fixed idiom with a preposition

    نوازندگان هر دو سرزمین از شعر کهن فارسی بهره می‌گیرند is Musicians of both lands draw on classical Persian poetry. بهره گرفتن از, to draw on or benefit from, takes از and the preposition is not optional. نوازنده is a player or instrumentalist, from نواختن; سرزمین is land or territory and is a deliberately less political word than کشور, which is worth preserving in English as lands rather than countries. شعر کهن فارسی is classical Persian poetry, and کهن is the literary word for old, distinctly higher in register than قدیمی.

  3. 03Sentence two, second half: a contrastive clause with a negated perfect

    در حالی که سازها و شیوه‌های اجرا همیشه یکسان نبوده‌اند is while the instruments and the manners of performance have not always been the same. در حالی که is the standard written whereas or while. ساز is the general word for a musical instrument; آلت موسیقی, the specification's own phrase, is the more formal equivalent. شیوه‌های اجرا is one more ezafe chain — the manners of performance. The verb نبوده‌اند is a negative present perfect and the plural agreement is with سازها و شیوه‌ها; English must keep the perfect, because the whole sentence is about a state that reaches into the present.

  4. 04What the paragraph is doing, and why the translation must preserve it

    The paragraph asserts commonality and then qualifies it twice, once with اما and once with در حالی که. That is a shape, not decoration: it is the shape of a careful claim about two related cultures. A translation that drops either connector produces an English paragraph making a stronger claim than the Persian made — and in a points-based mark scheme, the connector is one of the individual sections of language on which a mark depends. Translate the hedges as hedges, every time.

Result: Traditional music in Iran and Afghanistan has common roots, but each country has cultivated its own schools. Musicians of both lands draw on classical Persian poetry, while the instruments and the manners of performance have not always been the same.

Exam focus

  • Theme 2 is the only two-country theme. Learn that as a structural fact, not a detail.
  • Never call one variety a dialect of the other. Two official names, one shared literature, real differences — that is the accurate sentence.
  • Build two example sets and label every example with its country. It saves you in Section C and in Paper 3.

Typical mistakes

  • Writing about the Persian-speaking world as a single culture. Theme 2 names two countries and they are not interchangeable.
  • Researching a Theme 2 subject across both countries. One country only, always.
  • Assuming Paper 3 listening will be Iranian. The specification says the material is culturally relevant to Iran and Afghanistan.
  • Confusing دری with پشتو. Afghanistan has two official languages and پشتو is a different language, not a variety of Persian.

Active revision

در پنج جمله توضیح دهید که چرا موضوع دوم با سه موضوع دیگر تفاوت دارد، و در جمله‌ی آخر بنویسید که اگر این موضوع را برای پژوهش خود برگزینید، نخستین تصمیمی که باید بگیرید چیست

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

§ 02

Instruments, modes and the shape of a tradition (تغییرات و تحولات در موسیقی و آلات موسیقی)#

●●○StandardLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 موضوع دوم — موسیقی: تغییرات و تحولات در موسیقی و آلات موسیقیLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 2 Section A (translation into Persian)

Instrument families across the two countries

Instrument families, and what each lets you argueTable with 4 columns and 8 rows, Data: Family · Instrument · Where it is taught · Claim it supports; Plucked lute · tar, setar · Iranian art music · Continuity of a repertoire; Plucked lute · rubab · Afghan art music · One family, separate schools; Struck strings · santur · Iranian art music · Ensemble colour and tuning; Bowed strings · kamancheh · Iranian art music · Melodic line and ornament; Bowed strings · ghichak · Afghan and regional · Regional variety within a family; Reed flute · ney · Both traditions · The tie between breath and poetry; Frame drum · daf · Iranian and Kurdish · Rhythm cycles and ritual use; Goblet drum · tombak · Iranian art music · Metre as structure, not decorationFAMILYINSTRUMENTWHERE IT IS TAUGHTCLAIM IT SUPPORTSPlucked lutetar, setarIranian art musicContinuity of a repertoirePlucked luterubabAfghan art musicOne family, separate schoolsStruck stringssanturIranian art musicEnsemble colour and tuningBowed stringskamanchehIranian art musicMelodic line and ornamentBowed stringsghichakAfghan and regionalRegional variety within afamilyReed fluteneyBoth traditionsThe tie between breath andpoetryFrame drumdafIranian and KurdishRhythm cycles and ritual useGoblet drumtombakIranian art musicMetre as structure, notdecoration
Fig. 1The instruments are worth learning by family, because a family is a claim you can argue with and a list is not. Note the second and fifth rows: a shared instrument family with separate schools of practice is far more interesting than either shared everything or shared nothing. The instrument names are romanised here and the table is in English, because the figure engine emits no direction attribute and has no bidi handling; the Persian spellings are in the prose above and those are the ones you must be able to write.

Key points

Iranian art music is organised around two terms you should be able to define precisely, because a precise definition is worth more than an enthusiastic paragraph. دستگاه is a modal system — a scale together with a set of characteristic phrases and a hierarchy of pitches — and the tradition names seven دستگاه together with five آواز, secondary modal groupings. ردیف is the ordered repertoire of short melodic models, گوشه, that a student learns by heart within those systems and from which performance is built. The ردیف of Iranian music has been inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Those are statable facts. What is discussed rather than settled is how much freedom a performer has within the ردیف, and that discussion is itself a good subject for an evaluative paragraph.
The instruments divide into families and learning them by family rather than as a list makes them usable. Plucked long-necked lutes: تار and its smaller relative سه‌تار in Iran, and the رباب in Afghanistan, which is that country's most emblematic instrument. Struck strings: the سنتور, played with light hammers. Bowed strings: the کمانچه in Iran, the غیچک in Afghan and eastern regional practice. Wind: the نی, an end-blown reed flute whose breathy tone is bound up with Persian poetry. Percussion: the تنبک, a goblet drum, and the دف, a frame drum with a strong ritual association. Afghan art music also uses the طبله and the هارمونیه, an instrumental pairing that points directly at the third aspect of this sub-theme.
The aspect the specification actually asks about is تغییرات و تحولات — changes and developments — and change in a musical tradition happens in at least four places, which is your paragraph structure. The repertoire can change, as pieces enter or leave the ردیف. The instruments can change, in construction, in tuning, in the addition of instruments from elsewhere. The performance context can change, from private gathering to concert hall to recording to streaming. And the audience can change, in age, in location, in whether it is inside the country or in the diaspora. A candidate who says a tradition has changed without saying in which of those four senses has not yet made a claim that can be evaluated.
Two cautions. First, avoid the word authentic. Debates about whether a performance is اصیل, authentic, are real debates conducted by Iranians and Afghans about their own music, and reporting them is legitimate — but adopting one side as your own voice is an aesthetic judgement dressed as a fact. Attribute it: برخی از استادان معتقدند که ..., some masters hold that. Second, do not treat the two countries' traditions as one. They share a poetic repertoire and some instruments; they differ in modal terminology, in ensemble practice and in institutional history. The interesting question is exactly where the sharing stops, and that question cannot be asked at all if you have merged them.
Worked example

Paper 2 Section A: an English paragraph on musical change into Persian

Translate into Persian and justify each decision. 'The instruments have not stayed the same. Some players have added strings; others have adopted instruments from neighbouring traditions. Critics disagree about whether these changes enrich the repertoire or dilute it, and the argument is older than the recordings that provoked it.'

  1. 01Sentence one: a negated perfect, and the verb of remaining

    سازها یکسان نمانده‌اند. باقی ماندن or ماندن is to remain; نمانده‌اند is its negative present perfect with plural agreement. یکسان is the same or uniform. The English have not stayed the same is a perfect and Persian keeps it, so do not be tempted into a past simple نماندند, which would place the change firmly in a closed past and change the meaning. A short opening sentence is a deliberate choice here: it gives the paragraph a hinge to build from.

  2. 02Sentence two: two clauses in parallel, with را where it belongs

    برخی از نوازندگان سیم افزوده‌اند؛ برخی دیگر سازهایی را از سنت‌های همسایه گرفته‌اند. Two points of accuracy. In the first clause سیم is an indefinite, non-specific object and therefore takes no را — this is exactly the rule that distinguishes a confident writer from a hesitant one. In the second clause سازهایی را is marked with را even though it carries the indefinite ی, because the objects are specific ones the writer has in mind; را marks specificity, not definiteness, and this pair of clauses is the clearest illustration of that you will find. سنت‌های همسایه, neighbouring traditions, is an ezafe chain.

  3. 03Sentence three, first half: disagreement in the subjunctive

    منتقدان بر سر اینکه این تغییرها مجموعه را غنی می‌کنند یا از آن می‌کاهند اختلاف دارند. بر سر چیزی اختلاف داشتن is to disagree about something and is worth learning as one unit. اینکه introduces the embedded question. غنی کردن, to enrich, and کاستن از, to detract from, are the two verbs; note that کاستن takes از and that the pronoun آن refers back to مجموعه. The whole embedded clause sits between بر سر and اختلاف دارند, which is normal Persian word order and looks alarming until you have written it three times.

  4. 04Sentence three, second half: a comparative with a relative clause

    و این بحث از ضبط‌هایی که آن را برانگیخته‌اند کهن‌تر است. The comparative کهن‌تر, older, takes از for than, and the whole compared phrase is ضبط‌هایی که آن را برانگیخته‌اند, the recordings that provoked it — an indefinite plural head with a restrictive relative clause introduced by که and a resumptive object آن را inside it. That resumptive pronoun is obligatory in Persian relative clauses where the head is the object, and forgetting it is one of the commonest AO3 accuracy errors at this level. برانگیختن, to provoke or stir up, is a genuinely literary verb and lifts the register of the sentence.

Result: سازها یکسان نمانده‌اند. برخی از نوازندگان سیم افزوده‌اند؛ برخی دیگر سازهایی را از سنت‌های همسایه گرفته‌اند. منتقدان بر سر اینکه این تغییرها مجموعه را غنی می‌کنند یا از آن می‌کاهند اختلاف دارند، و این بحث از ضبط‌هایی که آن را برانگیخته‌اند کهن‌تر است.

Exam focus

  • Define دستگاه and ردیف precisely in one sentence each. Precision here is cheap and highly visible.
  • Change happens in repertoire, instruments, context or audience. Name which, every time.
  • Attribute the word اصیل to whoever uses it. Authenticity claims are positions, not observations.

Typical mistakes

  • Using دستگاه and ردیف interchangeably. One is a modal system, the other an ordered repertoire.
  • Calling the رباب an Iranian instrument. It is the emblematic instrument of Afghanistan; the Iranian long-necked lutes are تار and سه‌تار.
  • Writing آلات موسیقی as though it were the only phrase available. ساز is the ordinary word and often the better one.
  • Declaring a style authentic or inauthentic in your own voice. Report the debate; do not join it uninvited.

Active revision

یک بند صد و پنجاه کلمه‌ای بنویسید که در آن دستگاه و ردیف را تعریف کنید، سپس یکی از چهار جای ممکن تغییر را برگزینید و توضیح دهید که چه شاهدی برای آن تغییر لازم است

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

§ 03

Well-known kinds of music, and who listens (موسیقی‌های مشهور)#

●●○StandardLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 موضوع دوم — موسیقی: موسیقی‌های مشهورLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 1 Section B (reading)

Key points

The specification's phrase is موسیقی‌های مشهور, well-known or celebrated kinds of music, and the plural matters: the aspect is about categories, not about a single canon. The categories worth being able to name and distinguish in Persian are موسیقی سنتی, art or classical music; موسیقی محلی or موسیقی فولکلور, regional and folk music; موسیقی پاپ, popular music in the modern sense; موسیقی مذهبی, religious music, including the sung forms associated with مراسم and with رمضان; and موسیقی فیلم, film music, which is a substantial field in both countries' cinema. Being able to say which category a piece belongs to, and why the boundary between two categories is disputed, is worth far more than being able to name performers.
The regional traditions are the richest and least-used seam here, and they are where Iran's internal variety becomes visible. Iranian regional music includes موسیقی کردی, موسیقی آذری, موسیقی بلوچی, موسیقی بختیاری, موسیقی گیلکی and موسیقی خراسانی, in which the دوتار is central; Afghan regional practice likewise varies across the country and includes the دمبوره of the north. Each tradition has its own instruments, its own poetic forms and often its own language, which is worth stating plainly: a great deal of music made in Iran is not sung in Persian, and noticing that is an analytical observation rather than a complication.
Popular music raises a question the aspect is really about, which is audience. Who listens, where, and how? The honest description of the last three decades in both countries involves cassette, satellite broadcasting, the internet and now streaming and video platforms, and it involves substantial diaspora audiences and diaspora production, particularly for Iranian popular music. The regulatory position differs between the two countries and has changed over time in both, and any statement about what is or is not permitted needs a date attached — a claim about broadcasting in one decade may simply be false about another. Write بر اساس گزارش‌ها, according to reports, and name the period.
Because this is an aesthetic field, the discipline about judgement matters more here than almost anywhere else in the course. It is legitimate and indeed required by the AO4 grid to have a view; it is not legitimate to present taste as fact. Two patterns keep you safe. Attribute: به گفته‌ی بسیاری از منتقدان — according to many critics. And mark your own view: به نظر من, or the slightly more formal از دید من. And when you write about a genre's popularity, prefer the comparative to the invented number: در سال‌های اخیر شنوندگان بیشتری به این گونه روی آورده‌اند — in recent years more listeners have turned to this genre — which claims a direction you can defend rather than a magnitude you cannot.
Worked example

Paper 1 Section B: a reading question on a concert review, answered in Persian

Read and answer in Persian. متن: «کنسرت هفته‌ی گذشته با اجرای گروهی جوان آغاز شد که سازهای سنتی را با تنظیم‌های تازه به کار برده بودند. برخی از شنوندگان از این تلفیق استقبال کردند؛ اما نویسنده‌ی این یادداشت می‌نویسد که وقتی تنظیم بر ملودی چیره شود، چیزی از دست می‌رود.» پرسش الف: گروه جوان چه کاری کرده بود؟ پرسش ب: دیدگاه نویسنده را با دیدگاه شنوندگان مقایسه کنید.

  1. 01Question (a): notice the pluperfect before you answer

    به کار برده بودند is a past perfect: they had used. The tense tells you that the group's choice preceded the concert, which is why the sentence is describing preparation rather than performance. The answer: گروه جوان سازهای سنتی را با تنظیم‌های تازه به کار برده بود. Note that you may keep the singular verb with گروه if you treat it as one body, which is what the Persian does elsewhere; either agreement is defensible, but be consistent within your answer.

  2. 02Question (b): identify the two positions and the word that separates them

    The listeners استقبال کردند, welcomed it — an unambiguous positive. The writer's position is not a rejection but a conditional: وقتی تنظیم بر ملودی چیره شود, when the arrangement dominates the melody. That subjunctive شود is doing everything. The writer is not saying the concert failed; the writer is stating a condition under which something is lost. A comparison that reports the writer as simply disliking the concert has misread the sentence, and misreading a subjunctive is one of the most reliably penalised errors in Section B.

  3. 03Write the comparison with an explicit contrastive frame

    شنوندگان و نویسنده در برابر هم قرار نمی‌گیرند، بلکه به دو چیز متفاوت نگاه می‌کنند: شنوندگان از تلفیق استقبال کردند، در حالی که نویسنده شرطی را مطرح می‌کند و می‌گوید اگر تنظیم بر ملودی چیره شود، چیزی از دست می‌رود. The frame در برابر هم قرار نمی‌گیرند، بلکه, they are not opposed to each other, but rather, is a strong opening for a comparison question, because it announces a finding rather than a list. چیره شدن بر, to prevail over, takes بر.

  4. 04Close with the point of difference stated as a difference in kind

    بنابراین اختلاف میان آن‌ها بر سر ارزش این اجرا نیست، بلکه بر سر مرزی است که نباید از آن گذشت. So the disagreement between them is not about the value of this performance but about a boundary that should not be crossed. This is a short sentence and it is the one that earns the mark above description. Note نباید از آن گذشت — an impersonal construction with باید and the past stem, which is exactly the impersonal expression pattern in the specification's grammar list, and a very economical way to say should not be crossed with no subject at all.

Result: الف: گروه جوان سازهای سنتی را با تنظیم‌های تازه به کار برده بود. ب: شنوندگان و نویسنده در برابر هم قرار نمی‌گیرند، بلکه به دو چیز متفاوت نگاه می‌کنند: شنوندگان از تلفیق استقبال کردند، در حالی که نویسنده شرطی را مطرح می‌کند و می‌گوید اگر تنظیم بر ملودی چیره شود، چیزی از دست می‌رود. بنابراین اختلاف میان آن‌ها بر سر ارزش این اجرا نیست، بلکه بر سر مرزی است که نباید از آن گذشت.

Exam focus

  • Learn the five categories and be able to say why any boundary between two of them is disputed.
  • Use the regional traditions. They are the strongest evidence of internal variety and almost nobody uses them.
  • Date every claim about what is permitted. Regulation has changed in both countries and an undated claim is probably wrong somewhere.

Typical mistakes

  • Naming performers instead of categories. The aspect is about kinds of music, and a list of names answers a different question.
  • Assuming all music made in Iran is in Persian. Much regional music is not, and saying so shows real knowledge.
  • Making an undated claim about broadcasting or licensing. Attach a period or do not make the claim.
  • Writing موسیقی های with a space. It is موسیقی‌های, with the half-space before the plural suffix.

Active revision

پنج گونه‌ی موسیقی را به فارسی نام ببرید و برای هر کدام یک جمله بنویسید که بگوید مخاطب آن چه کسانی هستند و در کجا شنیده می‌شود؛ سپس یکی از مرزهای میان دو گونه را که مورد اختلاف است توضیح دهید

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

§ 04

The influence of other cultures (تأثیر فرهنگ‌های دیگر بر موسیقی)#

●●●AdvancedLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 موضوع دوم — موسیقی: تأثیر فرهنگ‌های دیگر بر موسیقیLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 3 Section B (listening, reading and writing)

Key points

This aspect asks about تأثیر, influence, and influence is one of the hardest claims in the humanities to evidence. Before you name any example, learn the three things that can be true when two musical traditions resemble each other. One may have borrowed from the other. Both may have inherited from a common older source. Or both may have arrived at the same solution independently, which happens more often in music than people expect. A candidate who writes that a feature came from a named culture, when the honest answer is that the traditions share an ancestry, has made a claim they cannot support. The safe formulation names the resemblance and then names the competing explanations, which is not a hedge but the actual state of the evidence.
The directions of influence that are safely discussable in this region are several and they run both ways. Arabic musical theory and Persian musical theory developed in long contact, and the shared medieval theoretical literature is documented. Turkish and Persian art music share instruments and modal vocabulary. Afghan art music has a strong, documented relationship with the art music of the Indian subcontinent, visible in the presence of the طبله and the هارمونیه and in the training lineages of Kabul's musicians. Western influence enters through instruments, through notation, through the orchestra as a form, through recording technology and through popular genres. And influence flows outward as well: Persian poetry set to music has travelled widely, and instruments of Iranian origin are played far from Iran.
The strongest analytical move available here is to ask what level the influence operates on, because that is what separates a real argument from an impression. Influence at the level of instruments — a new instrument joins an ensemble — is the easiest to observe and the shallowest. Influence at the level of form — a piece is organised as a suite, a song, a concert programme — is deeper. Influence at the level of theory — how the scale is conceptualised, how a mode is taught — is deepest and rarest. In Persian: تأثیر بر ساز آسان‌تر از تأثیر بر نظریه دیده می‌شود، و همین تفاوت است که بحث را جدی می‌کند. That single distinction can carry a whole Section C paragraph.
Two things to avoid. Do not use the word contamination or its Persian equivalents in your own voice; the language of purity and pollution belongs to one side of a live aesthetic argument and adopting it is not neutral. And do not assume that influence implies weakness. A tradition that absorbs an instrument and re-tunes it to its own modal system has not been overwhelmed; it has done something active, and describing it actively — این سنت ساز تازه را گرفت و آن را با کوک خود سازگار کرد — is both better Persian and better analysis than a passive that makes the tradition a victim of events.
Worked example

Paper 3 Section B: two sources on musical influence, summarised then evaluated

The recording carries a musician who says that the ensemble's new instrument changed nothing essential because the tuning was adapted to the existing modes. The written source carries a musicologist who says that once an instrument is added, the repertoire slowly reorganises itself around what that instrument can do. Write 5(a), 5(b) and 5(c) in Persian.

  1. 015(a): summarise the musician's claim, keeping its reason attached

    در فایل شنیداری، نوازنده‌ای می‌گوید که افزودن ساز تازه چیزی از بنیاد تغییر نداده است، زیرا کوک آن با دستگاه‌های موجود سازگار شده است. Keep the زیرا clause: the reason is the claim's whole strength, and a summary that reports only the conclusion has thrown away what 5(a) is marked on. سازگار شدن با, to be adapted to or made compatible with, takes با. از بنیاد, fundamentally, is a compact adverbial and a register lift over اساساً.

  2. 025(b): summarise the musicologist, and preserve the time dimension

    در متن نوشتاری، موسیقی‌شناسی استدلال می‌کند که پس از افزوده شدن یک ساز، مجموعه‌ی آثار به‌تدریج بر گرد توانایی‌های آن ساز بازآرایی می‌شود. Two details carry the argument. به‌تدریج, gradually, is the word that makes the two sources compatible rather than contradictory, and dropping it would make them look like a flat disagreement. افزوده شدن is a passive verbal noun — the being added of an instrument — which is the neat way to nominalise a passive clause in Persian.

  3. 035(c): show that the disagreement is about timescale, not about facts

    دو منبع درباره‌ی آنچه رخ داده است اختلافی ندارند؛ اختلاف بر سر بازه‌ی زمانی است که در آن باید به دنبال تغییر گشت. The two sources do not disagree about what happened; they disagree about the period over which one should look for change. This is the evaluative insight, and it is available only to someone who noticed به‌تدریج. باید ... گشت is again the impersonal باید plus past stem. آنچه, that which, is the compact relative pronoun and is worth having ready.

  4. 045(c) continued: judge, name a test, and conclude

    به نظر من هر دو می‌توانند درست باشند: سخن نوازنده درباره‌ی امروز است و سخن موسیقی‌شناس درباره‌ی چند دهه‌ی آینده. اگر پس از سی سال ببینیم که آثار تازه به آن ساز نیاز دارند، دیدگاه دوم تأیید خواهد شد. Note the modal می‌توانند درست باشند with the subjunctive باشند after می‌توانند; the conditional اگر ... ببینیم with a present subjunctive; and the future passive تأیید خواهد شد. And note what the answer does: it names the observation that would decide between the two positions, which is the clearest possible evidence of evaluation rather than of preference.

Result: 5(a) در فایل شنیداری، نوازنده‌ای می‌گوید که افزودن ساز تازه چیزی از بنیاد تغییر نداده است، زیرا کوک آن با دستگاه‌های موجود سازگار شده است. 5(b) در متن نوشتاری، موسیقی‌شناسی استدلال می‌کند که پس از افزوده شدن یک ساز، مجموعه‌ی آثار به‌تدریج بر گرد توانایی‌های آن ساز بازآرایی می‌شود. 5(c) دو منبع درباره‌ی آنچه رخ داده است اختلافی ندارند؛ اختلاف بر سر بازه‌ی زمانی است که در آن باید به دنبال تغییر گشت. به نظر من هر دو می‌توانند درست باشند: سخن نوازنده درباره‌ی امروز است و سخن موسیقی‌شناس درباره‌ی چند دهه‌ی آینده. اگر پس از سی سال ببینیم که آثار تازه به آن ساز نیاز دارند، دیدگاه دوم تأیید خواهد شد.

Exam focus

  • Borrowing, common ancestry, independent invention. Name all three before asserting any one.
  • Say which level the influence operates on: instrument, form, or theory. That distinction is the argument.
  • Describe traditions as agents, not as victims. Active verbs are both truer and better rewarded.

Typical mistakes

  • Asserting influence from resemblance alone. Resemblance is the evidence for a question, not the answer to it.
  • Treating the Afghan connection with Indian art music as a modern development. It is long-standing and documented.
  • Using purity language in your own voice. Report it if a source uses it; do not adopt it.
  • Writing تأثیر without the hamza. The word is تأثیر, and the spelling is not optional in formal written Persian.

Active revision

یک شباهت میان دو سنت موسیقایی را انتخاب کنید و سه توضیح ممکن برای آن بنویسید: وام‌گیری، ریشه‌ی مشترک، و پیدایش مستقل. سپس بنویسید که برای برگزیدن یکی از این سه، به چه شاهدی نیاز دارید

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

§ 05

Writing about music without inventing anything (روش نوشتن درباره‌ی موسیقی)#

●●●AdvancedLPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 موضوع دوم — موسیقی (all three aspects)LPPearson Edexcel 9PN0 Paper 1 Section C (writing — research question)

Key points

Music is the subject in this course where fabrication is easiest and most tempting, because a confident sentence about a performance is very hard for a reader to check. That is precisely why you should be strictest here. Three things are never acceptable: an invented quotation from a musician or critic; an invented statistic about audiences, sales or streams; and an invented detail about a recording you have not heard. All three feel harmless in the moment and all three are fabrications. The examination allows you no sources, so everything you write must be something you actually know, and the honest version of a half-remembered fact is a comparative claim or a named uncertainty, not a confident invention.
What replaces invention is the located example. A located example names something specific enough to be checked — an instrument, a genre, a form, a documented institution, a documented practice — and then says what it shows. It does not need a date to be located; it needs to be particular. Compare two sentences. موسیقی سنتی ایران بسیار غنی است is an assertion of taste with nothing in it. موسیقی سنتی ایران بر پایه‌ی ردیف آموزش داده می‌شود، و همین شیوه‌ی آموزش است که رابطه‌ی استاد و شاگرد را در مرکز این سنت نگه داشته است — Iranian art music is taught on the basis of the ردیف, and it is this manner of teaching that has kept the master-pupil relationship at the centre of the tradition — is a claim with a mechanism in it, and it can be argued with.
The Theme 2 research subject is توسعه‌ی رسانه‌های اجتماعی و اینترنتی, the development of social and online media, and although it is treated fully in the next topic it is worth noting here how directly it touches music. Distribution, discovery, audience and income for musicians in both countries now run substantially through online platforms, and the diaspora audience is reachable in a way it was not before. If you choose the Theme 2 research subject you may legitimately use music as one of your fields of evidence for the aspect تأثیر رسانه‌های اجتماعی و آنلاین در شیوه‌ی زندگی — provided you stay in one country and provided nothing you cite is one of your Paper 2 works.
One last discipline, which applies to every aesthetic topic in this qualification. Separate the description from the evaluation in your sentence structure, not just in your intentions. Write the description in the present or the perfect and without adverbs of praise; then start a new sentence with به نظر من or از دید من and give the evaluation with a reason. Readers — and examiners — can see that structure immediately, and it makes the AO4 grid's requirement to present and justify points of view visible on the page rather than something the examiner has to excavate.
Worked example

Paper 1 Section C: a Theme Two research paragraph in which music is the evidence and media is the subject

You have chosen the Theme 2 research subject, توسعه‌ی رسانه‌های اجتماعی و اینترنتی, and you have based it on Iran. The statement is «رسانه‌های آنلاین شیوه‌ی زندگی فرهنگی را دگرگون کرده‌اند.» Write one middle paragraph using music as evidence, in Persian, and account for every move.

  1. 01Fix the country and the aspect before the first word

    The Theme 2 research subject may be based on Iran or on Afghanistan, and you have chosen Iran; everything in the paragraph must therefore be Iranian, and an Afghan example, however good, earns nothing. The aspect this paragraph serves is تأثیر رسانه‌های اجتماعی و آنلاین در شیوه‌ی زندگی. Naming the aspect to yourself before writing is what keeps a paragraph from drifting into the neighbouring aspect on access to information, which you will cover separately.

  2. 02Open with the mechanism, not the claim

    پیش از این، شنونده‌ی موسیقی به فروشگاه یا به رادیو وابسته بود؛ امروز جست‌وجو و پخش برخط این وابستگی را از میان برداشته است. Before, the listener depended on the shop or the radio; today search and online streaming have removed that dependence. Note وابسته بودن به, to be dependent on, with its preposition; note the past continuous وابسته بود against the present perfect برداشته است, which is the tense contrast carrying the whole comparison; and note برخط, online, which is the Persian Academy's coinage and a good register choice, with اینترنتی or آنلاین as ordinary alternatives.

  3. 03Add the research finding and mark it as research

    در منابعی که برای این پژوهش خواندم، نوازندگان تازه‌کار بارها گفته بودند که نخستین مخاطبانشان را در همین بسترها یافته‌اند. In the sources I read for this research, beginning musicians had repeatedly said that they found their first audiences on these very platforms. گفته بودند is a past perfect, the right tense for something already stated in your sources; بستر, platform in the figurative sense, is the standard Persian term; همین before a noun means these very and is a compact intensifier. Crucially this is a report of what sources said, not an invented quotation — no words are placed in anyone's mouth.

  4. 04Close by naming what the evidence does not show

    اما این شاهد تنها درباره‌ی راه رسیدن به مخاطب سخن می‌گوید، نه درباره‌ی درآمد یا پایداری، و آمیختن این دو پرسش نتیجه‌ای گمراه‌کننده به دست می‌دهد. But this evidence speaks only about the route to an audience, not about income or sustainability, and conflating the two questions yields a misleading result. This is the sentence that lifts the paragraph into the top AO4 band: it states the limit of its own evidence. آمیختن, mixing or conflating, as a verbal noun subject; گمراه‌کننده, misleading, as a present participle used adjectivally; and به دست دادن, to yield, as a compound verb. No statistic anywhere in the paragraph, and nothing that could not be defended.

Result: پیش از این، شنونده‌ی موسیقی به فروشگاه یا به رادیو وابسته بود؛ امروز جست‌وجو و پخش برخط این وابستگی را از میان برداشته است. در منابعی که برای این پژوهش خواندم، نوازندگان تازه‌کار بارها گفته بودند که نخستین مخاطبانشان را در همین بسترها یافته‌اند. اما این شاهد تنها درباره‌ی راه رسیدن به مخاطب سخن می‌گوید، نه درباره‌ی درآمد یا پایداری، و آمیختن این دو پرسش نتیجه‌ای گمراه‌کننده به دست می‌دهد.

Exam focus

  • No invented quotations, statistics or recording details. Ever. There is nothing to check them against and nothing to gain.
  • Prefer the located example with a mechanism in it. A mechanism can be argued with; an adjective cannot.
  • Split description and evaluation into separate sentences. Make the structure visible.

Typical mistakes

  • Quoting a musician you have not read. An invented quotation is a fabrication regardless of how plausible it is.
  • Filling an evaluative paragraph with adjectives. غنی, زیبا and بی‌نظیر are not arguments.
  • Using a Paper 2 work as research evidence because it happens to involve music. The cross-paper rule has no exceptions.
  • Writing the evaluation inside the descriptive sentence, so that neither is clearly made.

Active revision

دو جمله درباره‌ی یک سنت موسیقایی بنویسید: نخست یک توصیف که هیچ صفت ارزشی نداشته باشد و یک سازوکار را نام ببرد، سپس یک ارزیابی که با «به نظر من» آغاز شود و دلیلی برای آن بیاورد

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

Contents

Section -- / 05

    • 01Two countries, two names for one language (موضوع دوم و دو کشور)○
    • 02Instruments, modes and the shape of a tradition (تغییرات و تحولات در موسیقی و آلات موسیقی)◐
    • 03Well-known kinds of music, and who listens (موسیقی‌های مشهور)◐
    • 04The influence of other cultures (تأثیر فرهنگ‌های دیگر بر موسیقی)●
    • 05Writing about music without inventing anything (روش نوشتن درباره‌ی موسیقی)●

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From notes into training

Music in Iran and Afghanistan (موضوع دوم: موسیقی)

Reinforce this topic with matching tasks from the question bank.

~35
min
4
Competencies
Practise

References & sources

Sources

Pearson Edexcel

  • Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Persian (9PN0) specification

Department for Education

  • GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Previous topic

The condition of Persian-speaking society (موضوع سوم: وضعیت و جنبه‌های گوناگون جامعه‌ی فارسی‌زبان)

Next topic

Festivals, traditions and the media research subject (موضوع دوم: جشنواره‌ها و سنت‌ها)

EuraStudy·Notes T·03·MMXXVI

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