My Thoughts

A large range of my thoughts on my life as composer was gathered and documented by [Jaco Meyer](https://www.jacomeyer.com/) in an interview. He published the interview online as a video which can be accessed on his website [here](https://www.jacomeyer.com/resources/composer-interview-series/4-hannes-taljaard). The interview was also published in a musicology journal, which can be downloaded [here](/assets/SAMUS-41_42-HT-Meyer-Interview.pdf).

It is unfortunately true for many composers that many compositions are performed only once. When one thinks about the time and energy that are required to compose a work, and bring this into relation with the few minutes of sound, it can be quite demotivating. Furthermore, one might not be satisfied with the composition after its first performance, and then determining what one can do, can become clouded by disappointment. This might lead to letting the piece fall out of mind, out of sight. Another diagram helps me to keep perspective and motivation: a diagram that puts the first performance of a composition into a flow-diagram that includes as many activities as I could imagine. <figure> <img src="/images/my-thoughts/flow-diagram.png" alt="Flow Diagram" /> </figure>

The professional life of a composer requires many hours of solo work. For some composers the possibilities of cooperating with others, and of working in a network, are attractive and stimulating. For many years, my professional activities were too much ‘solo’ and too little ‘tutti’. And so, I thought about this, and tried to imagine all the different groups of people with whom I can cooperate. I made a diagram, as a way of encouraging myself to keep on dreaming about and working towards professional work that would progressively include others. <figure> <img src="/images/my-thoughts/networks-diagram.png" alt="Networks Diagram" /> </figure>

Improvisation have been part of my life for almost five decades by now– ever since my earliest childhood years. Yet, before starting my studies of MBP/Rhythmik[^1] at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Vienna (mdw) in 2019, I did not reflect much on how one learns to improvise. In January 2023 my deeply disappointing struggles to (re)learn musical improvisation at the piano forced me to examine own learning path as improviser. I felt that I needed to form a theoretical understanding in order to guide my further development in a field that was at the time, and remains, important to me in artistic, pedagogic, and artistic-pedagogic contexts. I wrote a [dissertation](/assets/Learning-unlearning-and-relearning-to-improvise-at-the-piano_Dissertation_Hannes-Taljaard_2024.pdf) on this in 2024, of which some aspects are presented here. The core of my dissertation consists of two autoethnographic pieces which can be downloaded [here (1st piece)](/assets/Improvisation-Vienna.pdf) and [here (2nd piece)](/assets/Improvisation-Potchefstroom.pdf). These autobiographic writings present and develop the same six themes in different orders and from different viewpoints. Some of the experiences that I recreated correspond in important ways to actual experiences, while other experiences are fictional confluences of real experiences, or real experiences with fictional aspects. The first piece, titled *Vienna*, recreates a seminal experience from my years of studying improvisation as part of the MBP/Rhythmik programme. In the second piece (*Potchefstroom*), I trace my learning and unlearning of improvisation in the form of a dialogue in which I am a silent interlocuter. My interpretation of my own learning process is summarised in the following simple diagram. <figure> <img src="/images/my-thoughts/self-directed-process-diagram.png" alt="Dialogue Diagram" /> </figure> A framework grew from my research, and it describes my learning path: > my development as improviser shows the most growth when the composer and improviser are in multiple complementary relationships, and when self-directed development is based on the four aspects of (1) listening, (2) system building, (3) sensorimotor learning and (4) social interaction, four aspects which are all functioning optimally and in synergy. I interpret the uniqueness of my experiences of relearning improvisation through the profound confusion, conflicts and tensions that my role, skills and attitudes as a skilled composer brought to my learning path, and to my socio-cultural situation, amongst other factors. I use my interpretation to continuously guide and challenge myself to shape effective learning paths for myself and others. [^1]: Music and Movement Education/Rhythmics – Musik- und Bewegungspädagogik/Rhythmik (I use the German abbreviation MBP/Rhythmik also when I write in English.)