The Well-Tempered Guitar: In New Album Mak Grgic Uses Old Tuning to Hear Bach Anew
Mak Grgic. Credit Sami Rahim.
The Slovenian-born, Los Angeles–based guitarist Mak Grgic is an avid explorer of the guitar and all its possibilities. In addition to core repertoire, he performs Balkan music and flamenco. He plays new music, with Daniel Lippel, of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), JACK Quartet, and others. He’s working on an homage to Ligeti using gamelan-inspired arrangements. He composes his own works.
So, it’s no surprise his new album, MAK/Bach, coming out in June on MicroFest Records, puts a twist on canonic repertoire. By playing a zig-zag-fretted guitar in a period temperament from Bach’s time, he heightens harmonic drama and tension, and finds new shades of familiar colors.
WHAT IS MUSICAL ‘TEMPERAMENT’ ANYWAY?
Edward Lovett: Can you just explain the difference between equal temperament and “well” temperament?
Mak Grgic: There are many differences, but the main two are the treatment of the intervals between notes within a temperament, and the discrepancy in popularity. Equal temperament is a far more common temperament in Western classical music, where each relationship between two different notes is just a bit off — out of tune so slightly and equally that our ears have a hard time perceiving the discrepancy as even being out of tune. The well-tempered tuning is a tuning system which in many ways is still very “well-tempered” and adaptable to many different keys — it just prefers that certain intervals be purer than others. In the very popular Kirnberger III tuning [which Grgić uses on the recording], the major third between C and E is pure, making other intervals a little less in tune, adding to the drama and tension moving through different keys.
EL: Tell us about the guitar you used.
MG: The guitar is a Walter Vogt microtonal guitar with movable frets tuned to the Well-Tempered Kirnberger III tuning.
Grgic plays this guitar in this video.
‘SUDDENLY, THE MUSIC CAME A BIT MORE ALIVE’
EL: How did this recording come about? Why did you do it, and what are you keen to share with your fans and music fans in general?
MG: There are many reasons why I wanted to dedicate an entire album to the great master. Music by JS Bach is the kind of music that all classical musicians refer to and are often measured by. In other words, making an album of this staple of musical excellence is almost a bucket list item for any classical musician. Secondly, in the exploration of the well-temperament popularized during the times of Bach — with Johann Phillip Kirnberger, one of the major advocates for this tuning, being Bach’s student — I found a certain curiosity in the soundscapes and drama that this kind of alternative temperament was creating. Suddenly, the music came a bit more alive, and I felt inclined to offer this reading of some of his popular suites, sonatas, and chorale preludes. [The album includes the chorales “Petrus, der nicht denkt züruck” and “Christ lag in Todesbanden” (arr. Tilman Hoppstock), and “Es Ist Genug” and “Herzliebster Jesu” (arr. Hakki Cengiz Eren); Flute Partita (mvts. 1–3 arr. Ante Cagalj, mvt. 4 arr. Valter Despalj); and selections from the Violin Sonatas and Cello Suites transcribed by Grgic.]
GLENN GOULD AND ‘QUESTIONING HISTORICAL PRACTICE’
EL: You’ve said you’re inspired by Glenn Gould and the “lyrical academic questioning of historical music practice” of your former teacher, Luciano Contini. At the same time, you use a temperament that makes the intervals closer to what Bach’s music sounded like in his time. This seems an interesting tension between a modern approach and historicism. Is that accurate?
MG: Certainly. We all search for a reasonable and musical way to explore music as well known, but also as questioned, as that of JS Bach. What I was taught is that all musical ideas have to have a musical and theoretical backbone and have to answer the question, “Why?” Glenn Gould, for example, may have been eccentric, but he had great reasons for what he was trying to convey. I think tension in music and musical understanding is good, as it normally leads to release. In this case, the tension is the discourse between emotional and academic, while the release is the musical satisfaction of a very personal approach to this fabulous music.
WELL-TEMPERED DIDO AND AENEAS AND REALLY DISSONANT DISSONANCE
EL: Similarly, you have said the temperament you use, Kirnberger’s 3rd, makes some intervals “purer” and some less so, for “aesthetic drama.” Is this another form of a fruitful tension between “correctness” and a freer approach? What do you mean by aesthetic drama — as distinct from the classic harmonic drama of tension and release? Is there a moment that exemplifies this?
MG: I remember the first time I heard Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas executed in a temperament other than equal. To my ears what happened was the augmentation of the classic harmonic drama. Suddenly the concept of harmonic travel and return became much more meaningful, with the concept of the dissonance returning to consonance being much more present. This all fit so incredibly well with the text paired with the drama, that on a personal level I felt the need to explore this more on my instrument. There’s an obvious downside to temperaments that are not equal: it makes enharmonic modulatory motions much more difficult, and it makes the dissonance much more dissonant. I think it is up to each individual artist, then, to discover what feels aurally most suitable for the means of expression.
HARRY PARTCH, MICROTONALITY, AND ‘THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF NOTES BETWEEN NOTES’
EL: This old-new duality is reflected also in how John Schneider, your “microtonal guru” in well-tempered guitar, is also an exponent of Harry Partch. How did your previous collaboration, Makrotonal, explore this duality?
MG: On Makrotonal we wanted to create a collaborative effort pairing music of old with music of new. Microtonality is nothing new in the world of music. Compared to Western classical music, most Middle Eastern and Eastern music is in fact microtonal, and has been like that for millennia. We wanted to showcase that there is no bridge that musical intuition cannot cross, by carefully picking music of the Renaissance and Baroque in quarter comma meantone and well-tempered tunings, and pairing them with new compositions inspired by tuning systems of ethnic backgrounds. Most of all, Makrotonal was a journey into the wonderful world of notes between notes.
PERIOD TEMPERAMENT: OBSERVE AND ‘TASTE’ FAMILIAR NOTES ANEW
EL: Playing in the period temperament must have taken some adjusting to. What was it like to hear certain chords as “out of tune”? How did you navigate this adjustment, and how long did it take?
MG: For me personally there was no adjustment needed. It felt right from the beginning. With the increase of tension in more dissonant chords, there was an increase in relief of harmonic release, and that felt right.
EL: What were the rewards waiting for you on the other side? Do chords you thought you knew sound — and even feel, in your body — different?
MG: What happened foremostly was my observing of the role of each note within each chord. Oftentimes we find ourselves plucking and playing through the chords while not really observing what goes on within the chord, where the chord comes from, and where it is going. Having the extra “spice” made me pause and make sure I “tasted” the chord in the right and meaningful way. Sometimes that meant pausing a little bit more on the release, sometimes it meant rushing more quickly toward a certain moment, but all in all it made me think of music in a much more musical way.
EL: How has playing his music in period temperament changed your relationship to and feel for Bach and what he was doing in his compositions?
MG: It’s unfair to say that the choice of period temperament crucially affected my relationship to music by JS Bach. I believe that as we grow and shape our artistry, this music continues to challenge the limits of our potential. I just chose a route that may be a little less typical, but the growth of love and admiration for this repertoire would happen one way or the other. This way I was just a bit more observant of the ebb and flow of the harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic motions as affected by the slightly different soundscape.
HOW TO LISTEN? ‘ENJOY THE DIFFERENT SHADES OF THE SAME COLORS’
EL: What should someone familiar with equal-temperament performances of the Chaconne and/or other tracks listen for to catch the subtle differences in your period-temperament recordings?
MG: Keeping an open mind to enjoy the different shades of the same colors is what’s needed. The construct of the music doesn’t change; it just gets augmented, and this can have a great effect on our timing, which I believe is one of the most sensitive subjects in music. I’d suggest listening to those subtle nuances to maximize the listening experience!
MAK GRGIC
Touted as a “gifted young guitarist” by The New York Times and “a guitarist to keep an eye on” by The Washington Post, Mak Grgic [GER-gich] is a star on the worldwide stage. An expansive and adventurous repertoire attests to his versatility and wide-ranging interests. From the ethnic music of his native Balkans to extreme avant-garde and microtonal music, his roles as soloist, collaborator, and recording artist are fueled by curiosity, imagination, and boundless energy. As a testament to his versatility and wide-ranging appeal, in 2018 MAK was invited by legendary singer-songwriter k.d. lang to perform as the opening act for the North American leg of her Ingénue Redux Tour.
He is a founding member and active performer in two duos—the Flamenco-style “Duo Deloro” with Adam Del Monte, and the new music-focused “FretX Duo” with Daniel Lippel, guitarist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). As Young Artist in Residence with the Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, he founded “DC8,” an octet declared “an inspiring addition to the contemporary music landscape in Los Angeles [Los Angeles Times].” Other ongoing collaborations include the JACK Quartet, The Assad Brothers, violinists Augustin Hadelich, Martin Chalifour and Chee Yun, and cellists Jay Campbell, Joshua Roman, John Sant’Ambrogio, and Clive Greensmith, formerly of the Tokyo String Quartet, as well as a residency with the Slovenian Philharmonic.
