Semiotic Analysis of the Relationship Between Persian Musical Dastgāhs and Emotional Codes in Hafez’s Ghazals

Abstract

This study investigates the semiotic relationship between Persian musical dastgāhs and the emotional codes embedded in the ghazals of Hafez. The central question of the research concerns how the relationship between the signifying system of Hafez’s poetry and the emotional and semantic capacities of Persian classical music can be explained. Employing a descriptive-analytical approach, the study draws upon theories of literary and musical semiotics to examine emotional codes in Hafez’s ghazals and to compare them with the affective characteristics of Persian musical modes. The theoretical framework is based on the semiotic perspectives of Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, and Eco, as well as major contributions to musical semiotics and Persian musicology. The findings reveal that Hafez’s ghazals contain a complex network of emotional codes, including love, longing, sorrow, hope, ecstasy, irony, wonder, mysticism, and inward contemplation, which are articulated through symbolic imagery, metaphors, and poetic structures. The analysis further demonstrates that Persian musical dastgāhs possess distinctive emotional and semantic identities that correspond to particular emotional patterns found in Hafez’s poetry. Shur exhibits the strongest affinity with themes of love, yearning, and separation; Homayun corresponds to mystical reflection and elevated melancholy; Mahur is associated with joy, vitality, and hope; Segah reflects ambiguity and inner conflict; Chahargah conveys emotional intensity, rebellion, and passionate energy; Nava aligns with solitude and contemplation; and Rast-Panjgah represents semantic comprehensiveness and emotional multiplicity. The study concludes that the relationship between Hafez’s poetry and Persian classical music extends beyond historical association or performance practice and may be understood as a semiotic convergence between two artistic systems. Through shared emotional codes, poetry and music interact to generate layered meanings and aesthetic experiences, revealing a deep structural affinity between the Hafezian ghazal and the modal tradition of Iranian classical music.