music analysis post 2

 

Halo theme -music analysis 2



Intro

Now, when you think of video games, one of the first games that comes to mind is Halo. Halo is a single/multiplayer shooter based on the future. Now, Halo has a unique theme song well-known by just about everyone in the gaming community. The original theme song was composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori. The game with the soundtrack was released on November 15, 2001.
The theme song has had many appearances in its time. It has started in every Halo game.


Dynamics 

The halo theme is a rapidly changing piece. It starts off very slow and short at first. Almost giving you the feeling as if you are floating in space with the choir's harmony. Then, it slowly fades to an upbeat when the drums and the orchestra start coming in with a more aggressive and high-speed feel. This symbolizes the game perfectly in how one minute you could be enjoying the beautiful landscape of the halo rings, then all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose, and now you are battling for your life. Then it settles back down to how it started, Almost as all the dust clears from the battle, and everything is quiet now.

Timbre 

The piece's tone is very soft initially, but as stated before, once the rest of the instruments start to come in, it becomes a very sharp tone, which the violins capture perfectly. 

Melody

 So, the theme song's melody is one of the most nostalgic sounds the Xbox gamers have. The song starts with what is called a Gregorian chant. (other examples here) the chant is a central tradition of Western plainchant. This gives the song a strong sense of almost an acient and traditional feel.

Instruments 

Now, the instruments used in the song start with an ensemble of percussion instruments. Other instruments in the song include various types of piano, singing, guitar, flute, harp, oboe, and violin. These instruments are blended and used in different parts of the song. 


texture 

There are many types of musical lines in the song, such as the slow beginning of the song moving to the fast and upbeat middle or going back to each other. They all blend perfectly, with certain parts becoming quieter while the others becoming louder to the point where there is no more of the other part. 





“Gregorian Chant.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Sept. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_chant.

“Halo Theme - Music - Halopedia, the Halo Wiki.” Halopedia, Halopedia, 12 Apr. 2023, www.halopedia.org/Halo_Theme#:~:text=Recording%20one%20day%20prior%20to,on%20a%20number%20of%20commercials.

“Halo Theme” Sheet Music - 19 Arrangements Available Instantly - Musicnotes, www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/halo-theme/35241. Accessed 16 Oct. 2023.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 19, 2023 at 6:35 PM

    It would be amazing to listen to this theme song loudly on a surround sound system even though I am not a gamer! When doing some research on the soundtrack, I discovered that Martin O'Donnell got his inspiration for the theme from "Yesterday" by The Beatles. It's fascinating to hear where inspiration comes from! My favorite part of the theme song is when the string orchestra chimes in! Thank you for sharing this piece!

    ReplyDelete
  2. R. Exley Explain in MusicOctober 19, 2023 at 7:03 PM

    Interesting post! I remember years ago, like at the time of the first PlayStation, hearing from a composer on NPR how that they predicted the eventuality of video game scores having as large and far reaching of an impact as movie scores. I must confess that I thought that never would a video game score reach the heights of artists like John Williams (Jaws theme, Star Wars, etc) or Bernard Herman (most of Hitchcock's work), obviously from your post not only was I wrong but that the genre of video game musical pieces is every bit as lucrative as scoring major motion pictures. I love the scoring on the Assassins Creed series as well as Halo. Great post great format!

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