Bandmaster, formed Il-Banda ta’ Indrì

Born in Valletta, and blind from the age of two, Indrì had an amazing career. He was the son of Salvatore Borg and Antonia née Bonello. He overcame his serious handicap and managed to educate himself musically ending up as knowledgeable and proficient in every instrument. He devised his own braille-like system of writing and reading, using wax  balls of different sizes attached to staff lines in relief.            

His son, Paolo, born of his marriage to Maria Antonia Ebejer copied his father’s dictations. While still young, Indri Borg formed his own small band which entered local legend and remains known as Il-Banda ta’ According to Pietru Pawl Castagna, Indrì Borg set up the first musical band in Malta in 1860.

Borg composed six funeral marches, five hymns, and several dances. He also dictated a treatise in Maltese, 150 pages long, about harmony, scoring, and counterpoint as a comment on an 1854 work published by another author. Borg had had it read to him and stored it in his prodigious memory. He was also an organ repairer and restorer, working among others on those of Mdina Cathedral and St Paul Shipwrecked, Valletta. He dismantled the latter’s 1037 pipes and put everything back into place  after doing the necessary work over a period of  two years. 

Indrì Borg married Marianna née Ebejer and they had a number of children among whom two musicians: Paolo and Giuseppe.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.