User:AtlyxMusic/Crediting
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
In my work with Destiny Music Archive on YouTube, I've spoken with numerous Bungie composers to confirm track credits - ie which composers were involved in what. I also happen to know this info for a variety of Halo tracks, which I'll be providing below. The following info comes directly from me having spoken with either Marty O'Donnell and/or Michael Salvatori.
Halo CE
The following pieces were composed by Michael Salvatori:
I also speculate (but haven't asked yet) that the following tracks were Salvatori:
- Seriously
- What
- Tron
Seriously and What use melodies from other Salvatori tracks, and are also in the exact same style as two tracks from Oni: The Hunt and Searching. Both of these were done by Mike. I strongly believe that Tron was composed by Mike as well for two reasons: one, it uses melodies from The Lost Song, which was done by Mike. It also heavily uses the Roland JD-990 sampler, which for Halo, Mike had but Marty did not. This confirms that Mike at least heavily worked on it. Mike also notes that Perchance to Dream was possibly his, or maybe "Marty trying to sound like me." He couldn't further remember.
The following Halo CE tracks were done by Marty:
Under Cover of Night and Brothers in Arms were confirmed via Marty's YouTube "Inception" series Dust and Echoes was confirmed via Marty's sketch, released on Bungie.net in 2003. Lament for Pvt Jenkins is assumed because it's purely cutscene music, and we know that Marty scored all the cutscenes in Halo 1.
The following were done by both:
Speculation/Other Misc Info
I believe that On a Pale Horse and Suite Autumn were composed by Marty. They heavily resemble pieces that Marty wrote for another Bungie game, Oni. On a Pale Horse strongly resembles Hurry and Suite Autumn resembles other music from Oni such as Farewell. Suite Autumn also strongly resembles music that Marty and Mike worked on for another game called Septerra Core (which we'll be coming back to). Being entirely slow strings, it sounds a lot like Wind City Gales, Lost Battlefield, and Kyra's Tears.
Several pieces in Halo 1 re-use percussion from Bungie's Myth games, such as The Gun Pointed at the Head of the Universe, Covenant Dance, and Rock Anthem for Saving the World. Reusing existing percussion is a very Mike Salvatori thing to do; his percussion in Bungie's Destiny 2 is almost entirely reused from either stock loops (Heavyocity Damage) and reused from other Destiny composers, primarily being Skye Lewin and Pieter Schlosser, occasionally reusing parts from other composers as well. Given that we know that Gun Pointed was Mike already, and we know that 3 pieces from this era that use stock loops for percussion (two from Oni as aforementioned, as well as A Walk in the Woods), to me this makes it seem like Covenant Dance and Rock Anthem were heavily worked on by Mike as well. Matt Soell told me once that the guitarist in Rock Anthem, Harry Hmura, was specifically "a friend of Mike" when he'd been brought on, which also makes me wonder if Rock Anthem was a Mike track. Additionally, for Covenant Dance, it is worth noting that Marty has shared many notes and comments about pieces that he directly did from Halo 1, and as far as I know, he has never made any comments about Covenant Dance.
Old Stuff is a bit of an interesting case, as the basis of this piece is a Mike track. Mike wrote a rock version of a piece from Septerra Core called Brothel Rock. It doesn't really need to be overstated just how immensely similar this piece is to Old Stuff, and Mike has confirmed to me that he did this piece from Septerra Core. However, Marty has talked about this piece numerous times as if he'd heavily worked on it. I will say that, when Marty says a piece was him, I personally believe him, as I have never once had Marty take credit for a piece that he didn't do when talking to me. Marty has, numerous times, mentioned things like Unforgotten (and others) being Mike, and in my private correspondence with Marty, he's never shied away from saying that a piece from Destiny was done by Mike (or C Paul Johnson).
I believe that Perilous Journey and What Once was Lost] are both Marty. Marty did make Peril from Halo 2, and Perilous Journey is very heavily on its reliance on the main Halo theme, which is something that Marty just kind of did at the time. I think that Enough Dead Heroes was also Marty, as its more orchestral style just sounds like Marty to me, and the tag being called "battle2," with "battle1" having been a Marty track, also makes me think this.
Lastly, it is fairly obvious that the Halo Love Theme Sketch was done by Marty. Marty has talked about making it numerous times, and being a piano sketch, it's only logical that Marty made that and not Mike.
Halo 2
The following were composed by Salvatori:
- Broken Gates
- In Amber Clad
- Unforgotten
- Destroyer's Invocation
As a quick aside, for the track "Destroyer's Invocation." There has been longstanding speculation and misinformation that the backwards voice in this piece is Mendicant Bias, which is false. Clickbait Halo YouTubers are also now trying to make up stuff this "character" is supposed to be. Here's the truth: I've spoken with both Marty and Mike about this. The voice means nothing. Mike wrote the message, that's his voice. He wrote the poem really quickly and then threw away the paper. A sound designer at his studio later found it in the trash and asked Mike to sign it. He still has it to this day. The message is just there to be cryptic. Marty could barely contain his laughter when he was talking about it doesn't mean anything. I was also in a Slack server dedicated to uncovering secrets with Destiny. Marty was invited and actually ended up joining. He later told me that he just hopped in to mess with them. If you don't believe me, Marty's comment on Hidden Xperia's video also confirms that it means nothing. He talks about a speech by Professor Brain Moriarty, which was given in 1999 about hiding secrets in video games. The message of the talk was that you should hide random meaningless stuff in your games to engage your players ("watch as they fill in the meaning for you"). Marty's reference to this about Destroyer's Invocation is him confirming himself that the message doesn't mean anything. Please stop spreading misinformation about this.
The following were composed by O'Donnell:
- Peril
- Earth City
- Respite