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{{Soundtrack infobox | {{Soundtrack infobox | ||
|image=[[File:1 MOTS Cover square.jpg|200px]] | |image=[[File:1 MOTS Cover square.jpg|200px]] | ||
|release=December 25, 2017 | |release=December 25, 2017<br />June 1, 2018 | ||
|genre=Classical<br />Orchestra<br />Video game soundtrack | |genre=Classical<br />Orchestra<br />Video game soundtrack | ||
|label=Bungie Music Publishing | |label=Bungie Music Publishing | ||
| Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
}} | }} | ||
{{quote|For untold ages [[The Traveler|the Traveler]] sent signals from deep in the galaxy to our solar system, signals interpreted and identified by the subconscious mind of humanity as music. Music that tells a story about worlds yet to be experienced, places that don't yet exist. The message of the Traveler, along with the inner harmony amongst the seven spheres themselves, has inspired what you are about to hear.|O'Donnell's CD note}} | {{quote|For untold ages [[The Traveler|the Traveler]] sent signals from deep in the galaxy to our solar system, signals interpreted and identified by the subconscious mind of humanity as music. Music that tells a story about worlds yet to be experienced, places that don't yet exist. The message of the Traveler, along with the inner harmony amongst the seven spheres themselves, has inspired what you are about to hear.|O'Donnell's CD note}} | ||
'''''Music of the Spheres''''' was the musical foundation for ''[[Destiny]]'' written by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and Paul McCartney, which started production in 2011 and was sent off to an orchestra in November 2012 | '''''Music of the Spheres''''' was the musical foundation for ''[[Destiny]]'' written by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and Paul McCartney, which started production in 2011 and was sent off to an orchestra in November 2012<ref>'''Scribd.com''': ''[https://www.scribd.com/doc/278601628/Marty-O-Donnell-v-Bungie-Harold-Ryan Marty O'Donnell v. Bungie, Harold Ryan]''</ref>. The full version of its second movement, titled ''The Union'', was performed live at Video Games Live 2013<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AXUiCMpRY8 Video Games Live reveal of ''The Union'']</ref>, and it was announced that ''Music of the Spheres'' would be released as a standalone work. The music was planned to be released in August 2014<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Im5m67Ajs O'Donnell's talk at the Nordic Games Conference]</ref>, one month before Destiny's final release date, to be kept with the composers' intention of a "musical prequel" to the full franchise. It consisted of eight movements and a total of forty-eight minutes. | ||
== Track listing== | |||
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vt1nHkrYcw&index=&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc 1. The Path] - 6:20 | |||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori / McCartney | |||
== | [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpINzkanLfI&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc&index=2 2. The Union] - 4:28 | ||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori | |||
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTLoWEgxtM&index=3&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc 3. The Ruin] - 5:20 | |||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori | |||
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhwWeQ8ih8&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc&index=4 4. The Tribulation] - 5:52 | |||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori / McCartney | |||
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grz1-qU4DMk&index=5&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc 5. The Rose] - 5:25 | |||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori / McCartney | |||
== | [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he7xDUA_FhU&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc&index=6 6. The Ecstacy] - 6:39 | ||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori | |||
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQc4EMWRhfA&index=7&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc 7. The Prison] - 6:28 | |||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori / McCartney | |||
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9hUH9utsaQ&index=8&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc 8. The Hope] - 7:47 | |||
:Credits: O'Donnell / Salvatori / McCartney | |||
== Production == | |||
[[File:MusicofSpherespostcard.jpg|400px|right|The ''Music of the Spheres'' postcard, with track names, lengths, and art.]] | |||
In late 2010, Bungie management came to composer Martin O'Donnell, asking him to write music for ''Destiny''. He came up with a concept he called a "musical prequel," where the music would be released before ''Destiny'' to introduce people to the musical themes of the franchise. O'Donnell worked on it with his colleague and partner Michael Salvatori and later recruited famed musician Paul McCartney to the project in early 2011. | |||
' | O'Donnell took inspiration from the ancient concept "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musica_universalis Musica Universalis]"<ref>[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-04-12-the-day-the-music-died-when-bungie-fired-marty-odonnell O'Donnell's interview with Eurogamer on his firing from Bungie]</ref>, or the idea that the seven celestial spheres moved in relation to music. O'Donnell also used [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomantic_figures nocturnal geomantic figures] as the namesake for the individual tracks.<ref name="Kate">[http://www.wshu.org/post/marty-odonnell-origin-story-music-spheres#stream/0 Music Respawn interview with O'Donnell on the origins of Music of the Spheres]</ref> | ||
At E3 2013, publisher Activision reworked O'Donnell's audio for a trailer without O'Donnell's permission, replacing his music and hiring a voice actor unrelated to Bungie or ''Destiny''. O'Donnell expressed his frustrations on Twitter, stating the music was not his own.<ref>[https://twitter.com/MartyTheElder/status/344620774235185152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E344620774235185152&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurogamer.net%2Farticles%2F2016-04-12-the-day-the-music-died-when-bungie-fired-marty-odonnell O'Donnell's tweet about the trailer music]</ref> This started internal arguments with O'Donnell and Bungie's management. O'Donnell was fired from Bungie on April 11, 2014. A legal battle with O'Donnell and Bungie's former CEO Harold Ryan began shortly after, which was resolved on September 4th, 2015 in favor of O'Donnell. <ref>[https://www.engadget.com/2015/09/04/halo-destiny-composer-marty-odonnell-wins-lawsuit-against Engadget's report on O'Donnell winning his court case]/</ref> | |||
''Music of the Spheres'' remained unpublished for several years after, being made available on Bungie's own webstore on June 1, 2018 | ''Music of the Spheres'' remained unpublished for several years after, being made available on Bungie's own webstore on June 1, 2018 as part of ''The Music of Destiny, Volume 1'' vinyl soundtrack collection. <ref>[https://twitter.com/BungieStore/status/1005151172469010432 Bungie announcing the first official release of Music of the Spheres]</ref> | ||
== Leak == | == Leak == | ||
When the struggles between O'Donnell and Bungie went public, | When the struggles between O'Donnell and Bungie went public, ''Destiny'' fan OS_Epsilon began a project to reconstruct ''Music of the Spheres'' from publicly available material. After several months, OS_Epsilon released a 40 minute cut to Reddit on March 11th, 2016, which impressed O'Donnell. OS_Epsilon kept working on it for another year with the help of fellow fan Tlohtzin Espinosa. OS_Epsilon and Espinosa's work was released in March 2017, called the "[https://soundcloud.com/tlohtzin123/sets/music-of-the-spheres-definitive-edition-martin-odonnell-michael-salvatori-and-paul-mccartney Definitive Edition]".<ref>[https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-05-the-teen-who-spent-over-a-year-piecing-together-destinys-unreleased-music Eurogamer report on the work of OS_Epsilon and Espinosa]</ref> O'Donnell stated that while it was "not quite definitive", it was still close to the real work.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/619zav/music_of_the_spheres_definitive_edition/dfdlnh2/ O'Donnell's comment on the Definitive Edition]</ref> . | ||
Seeing the progress of OS_Epsilon and Espinosa, O'Donnell went to Twitter and encouraged anyone who had a promotional copy of ''Music of the Spheres'' to share it. <ref>[https://twitter.com/MartyTheElder/status/936349365496459264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fkotaku.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-936349365496459264%26autosize%3D1 O'Donnell's tweet encouraging people to share ''Music of the Spheres'']</ref> On December 23, 2017, Espinosa was contacted by someone who owned a copy of ''Music of the Spheres'', and he worked with OS_Epsilon to release it on December 25, 2017. <ref>[https://kotaku.com/four-years-later-destinys-music-of-the-spheres-has-lea-1821572335 Kotaku report of ''Music of the Spheres'' being leaked]</ref> Many fans feared the legal ramifications this would lead to, but for four months, the leak remained online. In April 2018, OS_Epsilon was contacted by Bungie with a Cease and Desist letter, which led to a fan outcry for the music. Bungie's community manager Cozmo23 responded to the backlash on Reddit by saying they were taking down the leaks so Bungie could officially release ''Music of the Spheres''. <ref>''[https://www.pcgamer.com/the-unreleased-destiny-album-music-of-the-spheres-has-leaked PC Gamer report on the official release of "Music of the Spheres"]''/</ref> | |||
==Poetry== | ==Poetry== | ||
During a trip to England, O'Donnell met a poet named Malcolm Guite at a festival on the Isle of Wight, where they had their first conversation about pre-Copernican astrophysics and C.S. Lewis. Quickly realizing they shared a passion for these ideas, O'Donnell asked Guite to write a collection of poems for ''Music of the Spheres''.<ref name="Kate">[http://www.wshu.org/post/marty-odonnell-origin-story-music-spheres#stream/0 Music Respawn interview with O'Donnell on the origins of Music of the Spheres]</ref> Guite | During a trip to England, O'Donnell met a poet named Malcolm Guite at a festival on the Isle of Wight, where they had their first conversation about pre-Copernican astrophysics and C.S. Lewis. Quickly realizing they shared a passion for these ideas, O'Donnell asked Guite to write a collection of poems for ''Music of the Spheres''. Guite wrote a collection of fourteen poems which he called '''''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells; A Sequence for the Spheres'''''<ref name="Kate">[http://www.wshu.org/post/marty-odonnell-origin-story-music-spheres#stream/0 Music Respawn interview with O'Donnell on the origins of Music of the Spheres]</ref> and gave them to Bungie to read over. O'Donnell loved the poems and Bungie purchased the rights to them. Guite had his name in the first ''Destiny'' game's credits for his poetry.<ref>[https://www.bungie.net/en-US/Destiny/Credits The credits for the first ''Destiny'' game]</ref> | ||
As years passed and ''Music of the Spheres'' was seemingly not going to release, Guite considered putting ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' into a number of his books, but an author whom Guite had admired, Michael Ward, said the poems didn't fit thematically into any of the collections he proposed. ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' remained unpublished. | As years passed and ''Music of the Spheres'' was seemingly not going to release, Guite considered putting ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' into a number of his books, but an author whom Guite had admired, Michael Ward, said the poems didn't fit thematically into any of the collections he proposed. ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' remained unpublished. | ||
Shortly after ''Music of the Spheres'' was leaked, Guite decided to start working to release ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' to the public. Guite sent a copy of the poems to two ''Destiny'' fans, who worked with Guite to create a series of videos incorporating the poems with ''Music of the Spheres''. The video series was uploaded on February 22, 2019.<ref name="Malcolm">[https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2019/02/23/the-music-of-the-spheres-a-poetic-adventure-resumes/ Guite's blog post on the release of his poems]</ref> Additionally, ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' was self-published by Guite in his poetry anthology ''After Prayer'' later that year. | Shortly after ''Music of the Spheres'' was leaked, Guite decided to start working to release ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' to the public. Guite sent a copy of the poems to two ''Destiny'' fans, who worked with Guite to create a series of videos incorporating the poems with ''Music of the Spheres''. The video series was uploaded on February 22, 2019. <ref name="Malcolm">[https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2019/02/23/the-music-of-the-spheres-a-poetic-adventure-resumes/ Guite's blog post on the release of his poems]</ref> Additionally, ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' was self-published by Guite in his poetry anthology ''After Prayer'' later that year. | ||
In terms of the layout of the poetry, there are fourteen poems arranged in seven pairs. Each poem draws influences from Ward's book ''[http://www.planetnarnia.com/ Planet Narnia]'' | In terms of the layout of the poetry, there are fourteen poems arranged in seven pairs. Each poem draws influences from Ward's book ''[http://www.planetnarnia.com/ Planet Narnia]'', and the poems are arranged in a format called a roundel, where each poem has a main phrase that is repeated throughout (for instance, The Moon's phrase is "The Moon is Full"). | ||
Every two poems are 'opposing pairs'. According to Guite, "Each of the seven spheres has a certain cluster of associations and influences, Venus with love, Mars with war and martial valor, the Sun with gold, but also poetry and inspiration, etc. But equally, it is possible for each of these celestial influences to become corrupted and malign, for, as St. Augustine says, good is primal and evil is always a corruption of some original good. | Every two poems are 'opposing pairs'. According to Guite, "Each of the seven spheres has a certain cluster of associations and influences, Venus with love, Mars with war and martial valor, the Sun with gold, but also poetry and inspiration, etc. But equally, it is possible for each of these celestial influences to become corrupted and malign, for, as St. Augustine says, good is primal and evil is always a corruption of some original good."<ref name="Malcolm">[https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2019/02/23/the-music-of-the-spheres-a-poetic-adventure-resumes/ Guite's blog post on the release of his poems]</ref> As such, the first poem of the opposing pair is diurnal, or the 'heavenly' sphere, and the second in the pair is the nocturnal, or the 'hellish' sphere. | ||
[[File:DS66ZTEU0AAGhUe.jpg|200xpx|thumb|Poet Malcolm Guite in a Bungie Office]] | [[File:DS66ZTEU0AAGhUe.jpg|200xpx|thumb|right|Poet Malcolm Guite in a Bungie Office]] | ||
To help Guite better understand the world of Destiny, O'Donnell gave Guite a list of phrases that summarized what ''Destiny'' was about. Guite was inspired by these phrases and wrote a fifteenth poem he called ''Earth's Enigmas''. Guite wrote it without Bungie asking for it, so it was never used in the game. ''Earth's Enigmas'' was released in a video on December 23, 2018.<ref>[https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2018/12/26/earths-enigmas-a-lost-poem/ Guite's blog post about ''Earth's Enigmas'']</ref> | To help Guite better understand the world of Destiny, O'Donnell gave Guite a list of phrases that summarized what ''Destiny'' was about. Guite was inspired by these phrases and wrote a fifteenth poem he called ''Earth's Enigmas''. Guite wrote it without Bungie asking for it, so it was never used in the game. ''Earth's Enigmas'' was released in a video on December 23, 2018. <ref>[https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2018/12/26/earths-enigmas-a-lost-poem/ Guite's blog post about ''Earth's Enigmas'']</ref> | ||
==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
*The musical keys of the pieces | *The musical keys of the pieces goes in the order of the Lydian b7 scale (C, D, E, F#, G, A, Bb, C).<ref name="Kate">[http://www.wshu.org/post/marty-odonnell-origin-story-music-spheres#stream/0 Music Respawn interview with O'Donnell on the origins of Music of the Spheres]</ref> | ||
* | *''Music of the Spheres'' was recorded from November 20, 2012, to November 24, 2012.<ref>[https://twitter.com/MartyTheElder/status/933941224246931456 O'Donnell commemorating the anniversary of ''Music of the Spheres'' being recorded]</ref> | ||
* | *''Music of the Spheres'' was mixed and mastered by December 10, 2012.<ref>[https://twitter.com/MartyTheElder/status/807462515248545792 O'Donnell commemorating the anniversary of ''Music of the Spheres'' being mastered]</ref> | ||
*An alternate mix of ''Hope for the Future'' by Paul McCartney with a boys choir is part of ''Music of the Spheres''.<ref name="Kate">[http://www.wshu.org/post/marty-odonnell-origin-story-music-spheres#stream/0 Music Respawn interview with O'Donnell on the origins of Music of the Spheres]</ref> | |||
==External links== | |||
*[https://mots.bungie.org/ The website for ''Music of the Spheres: Golden Age Anthology''] | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
[[Category:Soundtracks]] | [[Category:Soundtracks]] | ||
