source file: m1606.txt Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 21:05:59 -0500 Subject: Re: Left brain vs. right brain From: Gary Morrison In pursuing a conversation about what - emotion, right- or left-brain thinking - is important in composition and performance, here is one of my replies. Perhaps you might find this interesting. . . . Gary Morrison wrote: > > I agree that it helps to know composition principles, but that can't be all > > that you know. > > Definitely. All three - emotion, spontaneity, and cleverness - are critical > to making the experience powerful. . . > > I think if you get in touch with your feelings and with interacting with > > other people's feelings, you may find that you will be more inspired than by > > trying to follow rules of composition. > > In pointing out the importance of cleverness and design, I was by no means > trying to diminish the importance of the other two, meaning emotion and > spontaneity. I was only making a case for design being important as well. > > Music that is entirely emotional is nothing more than, literally, a scream > or a cry. (Many people don't consider sounds to be musical without structure, > at least at the level of notes and phrases. I probably wouldn't go quite that > far.) > > Music that is solely spontaneous rambles aimlessly. It can have lots of > energy but no direction or motivation. To quote Scotty, "we're goin' nowhair > mighty fast, Captin!" > > Music that is strictly devised by theory and rules is tediously > predictable, and, in a word, boring. > > Really good music on the other hand, has emotionally gripping melody and > performance, formed together in a brilliantly-meaningful developmental > framework, with insightfully-chosen points of surprise. All three of those > aspects are important. > > Or relatedly, creativity is not merely the spark of inspiration, but also > everything else it takes to create!