Music Respawn

The Poetry Inspired By Destiny's 'Music Of The Spheres'

WSHU | By Kate Remington

Published July 12, 2018 at 8:59 AM EDT

To generate excitement about its new game, Destiny, still in development, Bungie Studios had the idea of creating a musical prequel to give players an idea of what this new world would be. The music was initially begun by Marty O'Donnell, who later invited Michael Salvatori to collaborate on what would be an eight-movement suite called Music of the Spheres.

Bungie also hired poet Malcolm Guiteto write a beautiful set of poems to accompany each of the suite's movements, which represent the sun, moon and planets of the Solar System.

The entire collection of the music and poetry was never released, but two dedicated fans of Music of the Spheres, Owen Spence and Landon Davis, have worked for several years to reunite Malcolm's poems with the music that inspired them. I talked with both of them about how they went about tracking down the music and the poems, and how they're putting them together.

Now that Bungie has officially planned to releaseMusic of the Spheres, Owen and Landon feel the time is right to present each of the pieces with their poems in a series of videos. The Moon is the first to be completed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mrDRsB6O_0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mrDRsB6O_0

Marty O'Donnell met poet Malcolm Guite at a festival on the Isle of Wight in England, and during their conversation, they discovered they had a mutual admiration for the writing of C.S. Lewis, as well as an interest in pre-Copernican astrophysics, both of which inspired Music of the Spheres, and Malcom's collection of 14 poems,Seven Heavens, Seven Hells.

Owen and Landon are working on the rest of the suite, which will be released during this year. You can subscribe to theYouTube Channelfor the latest news.

Episode Tracklist

Performed by London Voices, orchestra conducted by Gavin Greenaway

Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori: Music of the Spheres: The Path; Tower Fanfare; The Ecstacy; The Rose

Landon Davis (Emblyne) and Owen Spence: The Moon--Golden Age Anthology (poem by Malcolm Guite with Music of the Spheres, The Path) Read by My Name is Byf and Moonvald

Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori: Music of the Spheres: The Tribulation; The Union