Left brain vs. right brain

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.
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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.

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> > 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!