O'Donnell requested one of the jingle players to sing the Qawwali-like solo during the string melody, but upon hearing O'Donnell's example, it was decided O'Donnell would sing the solo instead. O'Donnell and Salvatori applied reverb to the strings and choir recordings, while the cello recordings were overdubbed, thus creating the impression of a large orchestra when the recordings were added on top of the MIDI recording. O'Donnell and Salvatori sung the Gregorian chant with three jingle singers, who had previously collaborated with the duo on a number of commercials. Recording one day prior to the MacWorld presentation, the theme was recorded with an orchestra composed of six string instruments: four violins and two cellos. O'Donnell has stated that he laid down the core melody of the theme in about half an hour during the drive to the studio at Salvatori’s house. He was also inspired by the first verse of The Beatles' song " Yesterday", which inspired the four-phrase structure of the Gregorian chant.
To best convey this impression, O'Donnell drew inspiration from his studies on Middle Ages music and decided to incorporate Gregorian chant into the theme, which has since become a staple of the Halo series in its various forms. Staten told O'Donnell that the theme needed to evoke the game's "ancient, epic and mysterious" atmosphere. However, the music would need to be first recorded and shown internally within Bungie on Monday - the same day Bungie representatives would board the flight to New York for the presentation on the following day. O'Donnell was asked by Joseph Staten on a Thursday to compose a soundtrack for the then-upcoming Halo MacWorld premiere demo on the following Tuesday. Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori composed the Halo Theme over the course of three days in July of 1999. As for the tempo, the starting choir is set to 95 bpm (beats per minute), while the middle section speeds up to 120, before the ending choir chant which settles back to 95. The first part of the song is a choir chant which is repeated at the end, and this is set to a beat of 4-4, with the middle section featuring string instruments and percussion this is set to a beat of 12-8 and is significantly faster than the choir chant. Interestingly, we decided to write our melody version in slow four which means the main riff is played with 16th notes, whereas our accompaniment version, which is easier to play, is written in fast four so that the main riff is played with eighth notes.The song is set in the key of E Dorian, with two sharps: F and C.
While this doesn’t change the performance of the song, it does change the way it is notated. This song can be felt with either a slow four-count, at 80 beats per minute, or with a fast four-count at 160bpm. Once you know the shapes and the placement on the piano, you can start to integrate the arpeggio pattern. The first three chords are all played in second inversion, followed by D Major root position. If you’re struggling to piece together the intro then I would recommend starting with the four chords of the intro sans rhythm, and making sure you know how each chord leads to the next. The accompaniment lesson is certainly more beginner friendly whereas the melody version is most appropriate for intermediate to advanced players. In our accompaniment version, the main riff with some variations is recycled throughout, but in our melody version, the melody is played whenever there are vocals. Using four chords from the key of A Major (A, Bm, F#m and D), the right hand consistently plays the top, bottom and middle note of each triad, while the left hand holds steady with whole note bass lines.
Featuring piano at the fore, Halo is a wonderful example of a classic piano style I like to call the Hi-Low-Mid-Low arpeggio. Halo, a quintessential piano-driven anthem by singer, dancer and songwriter powerhouse Beyoncé, was released in 2008 to much acclaim.