Editing Music of the Spheres

|release=December 25, 2017<br />June 1, 2018

'''''Music of the Spheres''''' was the musical foundation for ''[[Destiny]]'' written by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and Paul McCartney, which started production in 2010 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

 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpINzkanLfI&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc&index=2 2. The Union] - 4:28

 

 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTLoWEgxtM&index=3&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc 3. The Ruin] - 5:20

 

 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhwWeQ8ih8&list=PLDOdDCOrPnmk4cZpScZ-ZJ8Xt5WgdkuAc&index=4 4. The Tribulation] - 5:52

 

 

[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

[[File:MusicofSpherespostcard.jpg|400px|right|The ''Music of the Spheres'' postcard, with track names, lengths, and art.]]

In late 2009, 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>

 

''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>

When the struggles between O'Donnell and Bungie went public, ''Destiny'' fan Owen Spence began a project to reconstruct ''Music of the Spheres'' from publicly available material. After several months, Spence released a 40 minute cut to Reddit on March 11th, 2016, which impressed O'Donnell. Spence kept working on it for another year with the help of fellow fan Tlohtzin Espinosa. Spence 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 Spence 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 Spence 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 Spence 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, Spence was contacted by Bungie and sent 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>

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 for his poetry in the first ''Destiny'' game's credits.<ref>[https://www.bungie.net/en-US/Destiny/Credits The credits for the first ''Destiny'' game]</ref>

Shortly after Spence and Espinosa leaked ''Music of the Spheres'' in December 2017, Spence and his friend Landon Davis acquired the poems, and started work on a collection called ''Music of the Spheres: Golden Age Anthology'', which combined ''Seven Heavens, Seven Hells'' and other content related to ''Music of the Spheres'' into a package complete with art, videos, and audio. Their first video was released on July 7, 2018, and they stated they would release more once ''The Music of Destiny, Volume 1'' vinyl collection shipped in late 2018 to those who purchased them. <ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mrDRsB6O_0 The demo for ''The Golden Age Anthology'']</ref> The rest of the poems were released to the public 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>

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 valour, 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|right|Poet Malcolm Guite in a Bungie Office]]

To help Guite better understand the world of Destiny, Joseph Staten 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 by Guite, Spence, and Davis 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>

*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 in its entirety on November 23, 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>

*The trademark for the name ''Destiny: Music of the Spheres'' was abandoned on May 12, 2014.<ref>[https://trademarks.justia.com/860/18/destiny-music-of-the-86018154.html Legal status for the ''Music of the Spheres'' trademark]</ref>

 

[https://mots.bungie.org/ The website for ''Music of the Spheres: Golden Age Anthology'']

 

===History of Composing a Suite===

 

In early 2019, O'Donnell began a YouTube series where he revealed the earliest versions of ''Music of the Spheres''. All of the music he uploaded was created in early 2011 alone in his studio, before Salvatori or McCartney became involved.

 

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3YogVGYncwBKDF29-6w1dDIXSCHeIamP O'Donnell's YouTube playlist]

 

[https://soundcloud.com/marty-odonnell/sets/making-of-a-suite O'Donnell's audio-only version on SoundCloud, featuring artwork by Owen Spence]

 

[https://www.wshu.org/post/marty-odonnells-earliest-ideas-music-spheres#stream/0 Music Respawn interview with O'Donnell about his videos]