A Letter to Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori

To Marty & Michael,

Thank you.

This is a letter I wish I had written long ago, as the music you composed for Halo has always been among my favorite music of any genre.

I have all the Halo albums, and despite having listened to them so many times, I still feel the awe, the poignant sadness, and the excitement that exists in your pieces. Your music still affects me.

I love how your compositions range from sweet, to forlorn, to curiosity evoking, to dark and serious, to noble, to melancholy, to tedious, to adventurous and brave, to scary, and to grand and epic. I love how accurately they reflect the emptiness of space, the woods and the forests, the dilapidated barracks of the UNSC, the sand dunes of The Ark, and the abandoned futuristic structures of the Forerunners. Your music makes me want to explore and discover, to be loud, and to run and move. It makes me feel like a complete badass and at the same time makes me feel profound.

Listening to your work has given me some of the highest highs that I’ve experienced from any media and I feel lucky to have been so affected by your compositions.

It takes real masters to compose music around a game but make it sound like the game was crafted around the music.

Over time, your soundtracks have become an indispensable part of the music landscape of my life. They’re wondrous, imaginative, and convey such a vast and disparate gamut of emotions. I’ve yet to find any other soundtrack on this level and I’m so grateful for the sounds you two have given the world.

Thank you.