Wreckage (music)

Wreckage
Album:	Halo 4: Original Soundtrack Volume 2
Composer(s):	Kazuma Jinnouchi
Length:	3:24
Previous:	Gravity
Next:	Aliens

Wreckage is the third track on Volume 2 of the Halo 4: Original Soundtrack.

Overview

The piece begins with a deep, resonant ambient hum, immediately establishing a vast, empty, and foreboding soundscape through synth pads. From this void, mournful low strings, primarily led by cellos emerge, weaving a slow, heavy melody laden with sorrow and a sense of ancient gravity, carrying the Master Chief's leitmotif, 117. It opens with a dissonant piano note, and a dissonant piano note with the last note of the motif brings the rising theme down. It's deliberate, haunting, with each note carrying immense weight and burden.

The haunting synth returns before motif rising again, cello leading, with higher strings gradually joining; creating layered harmonies that deepen the melancholy—a rich tapestry of somber reflection. The initial theme is expanded, its contours becoming more defined yet retaining its profound sadness, hinting at a story of great import or loss.

A rather, soft, pulse-like synth melody emerges from the background, like a momentous unfolding, quickly establishing itself before strings swell again. The theme returns again, but a palpable shift occurs as the orchestral texture thickens and the dynamic swells. The synth melody slowly growing in intensity, establishing itself as a motif, creating deep, resonant percussion-like textures that punctuates the growing intensity. The strings take on a more urgent, almost pleading quality, building towards an inevitable revelation.

The music then transitions into a majestic, sweeping statement; the motif transitioning from being Cello-led to a more high-string driven full orchestral section, now bolstered by the synth rythm, soaring with a theme that is both grand and poignant, with french horns rising in the background alongside subtle cymbal clashes – a declaration of immense scale, tragedy, or an awe-inspiring revelation. It’s a powerful, emotionally charged vista, filled with a sense of gravitas and consequence.

Gradually, this immense power precedes, synth fades out, with the grand theme lingering in the air like the after-image of a profound vision. Braking the unsettling silence, the motif then re-emerges, led by a single horn, heroic, but alone—an underlying tragedy that questions if the heroism was truely worth it. A dissonant piano note hits, the hunting atmosphere sustains, holding onto the emotional residue of the unresolved theme.

The piece then effectively returns to being almost like how it started; one instrument-led motif amidst the void of synth-textures soundscape, but now with horn instead of cello, sustaining slightly longer than the one that came before—a faint glimmer of hope and heroism. The piece concludes by returning to the sparse, mysterious atmosphere of its opening. The low, ambient hum resurfaces, and instruments fade into an echoing silence, allowing for a moment of solemn contemplation, leaving with a lingering sense of unresolved mystery and the weight of what has been witnessed.

Composition

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Arrangements

• The main motif is features as a more majestic theme in 117 and expanded upon, solidifying it as the Master Chief's theme.
• Rearranged for Mantis with synth rhythm being played by percussion that supports the brass-led main motif.

Appearances

This soundtrack can be heard:

• In the Halo 4 main menu.
• In Requiem, when John-117 and Cortana emerges from the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn's remains.
• In Shutdown, when John-117 first pilots his Pelican out of the UNSC Infinity.