Martin O’Donnell

An exploration of the development, technological devices and compositional techniques that Martin O’Donnell uses and how those influences affect personal compositions. 

This essay will evaluate the work of Martin O’Donnell, exploring his influence within named pieces of work. This will be explored further in how Martin O’Donnell uses his music to immerse the audience into the gameplay. Specifically, I will explore how Martin O’Donnells use of full orchestral scores creates a sense of Hollywood within games, which helped pave the way for music within games to be a major selling point. Furthering upon this an examination into where his work stands in relation to the game audio technology timeline, and how this affected his work such as technological limitations, will be explored. Finally, I will evaluate and contrast my own compositional techniques used in my own music compositions and why this is the case. 

In relation to the game audio timeline, Martin O'Donnells work is placed into the 6th generation and 7th generation and moving onto the now 8th generation. For microsoft Halo was to be its flagship game, contrary to the multi-platform games of the time, and to be specifically made just for the xbox. With the acquisition of Bungie by Microsoft, it meant Martin had to follow the xbox specifications of  64 3D sound channels with up to 256 stereo voices. This meant that Martin and Michael had the ability to have 5.1 surround sound within their games("Microsoft Xbox Specifications", n.d.). With the xbox 360 it had the capability of Multi-channel surround sound output, supported 48KHz 16-bit audio. Also, it was capable of 320 independent decompression channels, 32-bit audio processing with over 256 audio channels ("Xbox.com | Xbox 360 - Support - Xbox 360 Technical Specifications", n.d.).

How this was used was the ability to create an engaging an exciting world from which the player was able to interact with and move with sounds and music being played alongside, also described as hyper real. Martin was also a pioneer in the use of limited music instead of the use of ‘wall to wall’ sound. His opinion on this was;

"music is best used in a game to quicken the emotional state of the player and it works best when used least. If music is constantly playing it tends to become sonic wallpaper and loses its

impact when it is needed to truly enhance some dramatic component of game play" (Lerner, Donnelly & Gibbons, 2014).

The past two decades have seen a rapid development of the quality of games in terms of their visual and musical appeal. Martin O’Donnell can be seen as a pioneer for the musical and sound side of games with his use of full orchestral compositions to enhance the emotional impact that is being displayed visually. The quote “Halo wouldn't be the same without the evocative music of Marty O’Donnell” (Dudley, 2009) encapsulates the power in which the music played in the story telling, and being compared to how “Just as "Star Wars" wouldn't be "Star Wars" without the awesome soundtrack by John Williams, "Halo" wouldn't be the same without the evocative music of Marty O'Donnell.” (Dudley, 2009). 

Martin O’Donnell has had a big influence on how I compose my own compositions, the reasons for this is because of the emotional impact that his own compositions manages to portray. Martin first started his musical career writing jingles for such adverts as the Flintstones Vitamins. Later in his career he had a working relationship with Michael Salvatori. It was in 2002 that Martin and Michael would co release the music for the new game Halo: Combat Evolved. The use of Gregorian chants and big percussive elements created a sense of vast space and an ancient impression whilst implying of an ancient civilisation. This influences my compositions with the use of big percussive sections such as timpani drums to create a sense of urgency, with the backing of orchestral hits and melodies to evoke emotions similar to that of a movie experience. The reason this is so powerful is because in a way big percussive drums can mimic a heart beat, and it has been shown that music can affect the BPM (beats per minute) that the listener has (Trappe & Voit, 2016).

When formulating my own compositions, there are a few first steps I like to make. For me it is important to understand the world I am trying to compose for. The reason for this is that music should be an afterthought to the player, one where they can get immersed into the game further. As opposed to juxtaposition where you can elevate a certain feeling such as sadness with the use of happy, emotive songs. Personally, juxtaposition should be used sparingly within compositions for a game, and only to highlight key moments. Next, once a theme and key phrases have been formulated, I look for a key scale and mode that suits the feeling I am going for. From here most of the compositions building blocks are there. To counter this though, breaking free of diatonic scales at certain positions can elevate certain moods, for example if a level has a darker and uneasy setting, you can amplify this feeling with the use of going outside the scale, meaning that sonically the listener will also be uneasy and on edge. 

It is important to understand how the player expects music to be, and a strong tool which I use is to play with the players expectations. Hans Zimmer discusses the use of musical questions and answers (Zimmer, n.d.) in his MasterClass or film scoring. These questions and answers can be used to play with people's emotions. If a battle scene is developing within game, the use of lots of questions phrases will add to the confusion the player is experiencing and the confrontational theme that is being portrayed. Distinguishing between the use of linear and non-linear music will help towards writing compositionally for a game. Linear music is great for cutscenes or parts of the game where there is limited player input such as in-game scripted moments. Non linear music is linked entirely to payer input and certain parameters, such as a players position or health state. For me the use of quiet moments helps to build the excitement when it is needed. 

Continuing on the compositional techniques Martin uses, it can be found that he uses lots of specific methods. The first, can be his use of musical expectations and how the expectations within the game relate to the music being conveyed, such as the halo 3 ending cutscene where the “warthog” has to make an impossible jump, the music elevates to increase the energy of the player. Another area that Martin uses heavily within the albums for the Halo franchise is the use of themes and motifs. A motif is described as;

“A short tune or musical figure that characterizes and unifies a composition. It can be of any length, but is usually only a few notes long. A motif can be a melodic, harmonic or rhythmic pattern that is easily recognizable throughout the composition.a short musical idea, or melodic theme that runs through a piece”("Motif - Definition (Artopium's Music Dictionary)", 2018).

The Halo motif can be found throughout the game and compositions and acts as a reminder to the player of reinforcement to whatever is being shown or referenced on screen. Also, his use of conjunct melodic contour helps ground the music more firmly, since the music is already only being played at crucial moments, the use of disjunct contour wouldn't be appropriate as the music is already in limited use so there is no need for attention grabbing changes.

In relation to the work of linear and nonlinear compositions for this module, I have used many of the same techniques Martin has used. For the linear composition I wanted to create the sense of triumph because of the theme of the cutscene. For this full orchestral colours were used to emulate that movie type scene, this includes elements such as woodwinds, brass, percussion and strings to recreate that ‘Hollywood’ feel I was aiming for. I also used Martin’s opinion of music, and have quietened down and limited instruments when the emotion on screen takes a turn. With the nonlinear composition I wanted to emphasise the mystical land of the scottish highlands, with the methodical music of the Roman army. Thematically I wanted there to be a battle between two sounds, one more mysterious and not set to a certain key, and one which is very methodical and within standard western musical parameters. 

To conclude, Martin O’Donnell’s use of music within video games was a pioneering moment for video gaming. It highlighted the limited use that music should have in order to build anticipation and energy. His work with orchestral music and big percussive instrumentation heavily influenced my linear composition in the way of choosing the instruments and also being able to choose the right moments to scale these back in relation to volume and number being played. His work has become one of the biggest selling points for the early Halo games of which fans still appreciate to this day. 

Bibliography

Dudley, B. (2009). Brier Dudley | 'Halo' wouldn't be the same without evocative music of Marty O'Donnell | Seattle Times Newspaper. Retrieved 10 November 2019, from http://old.seattletimes.com/html/brierdudley/2009908926_brier21.html

Lerner, N., Donnelly, K., & Gibbons, W. (2014). Music in video games: Studying Play (pp. 125, reference 22). New York, NY: Routledge. 

Microsoft Xbox Specifications. Retrieved 17 November 2019, from https://gameitworks.wixsite.com/store/xbox-specifications 

Motif - Definition (Artopium's Music Dictionary). (2018). Retrieved 14 December 2019, from https://musicterms.artopium.com/m/Motif.htm

Trappe, H., & Voit, G. (2016). The Cardiovascular Effect of Musical Genres. Retrieved 17 November 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906829/ 

Xbox.com | Xbox 360 - Support - Xbox 360 Technical Specifications. Retrieved 17 November 2019, from https://web.archive.org/web/20080822024003/http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/support/xbox360/manuals/xbox360specs.htm 

Zimmer, H. MasterClass. Retrieved 17 November 2019, from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-hans-zimmer-composes-film-scores-like-batman-and-lion-king