Ideograms - Book 1

Ideograms Book I (1980) & II (1982)

Ideogram ( i.e. a visual representation of an idea)

As previously pointed out, Grech’s main artistic aim in Quaderno II was to extract the essential and universal musical elements from the aesthetics of the four composers to which he pays tribute as they were historically expressed in their actual musical output. In Ideograms I and II, Grech takes this search and analysis to its logical conclusion by delving into the almost metaphysical question regarding the purpose, scope and meaning of composition and its basic subject matter, sound. Few, if any, composers have bothered to even ask themselves this fundamental question in a century of such unbridled change and plurality of styles as the twentieth century. The widespread ignorance about the necessity of this compositional exercise in artistic integrity is the root of the equally widespread mediocrity in many of the innovations put forward in twentieth-century composition. It is this flaw which Grech seeks to rectify through this work. The title chosen for it, Ideograms, betrays Grech’s realization that the linguistic and communicative value of music must be supported by an underlying intangible reality to which its signs and sounds refer. Thus the true composer is essentially a proficient speaker of this esoteric language. This solid connection of music to spiritual reality is what gives music the permanence, order and lasting value that will restore it to its past authenticity.

Parts included in the pdf: Piano