Halo Wars 2 ViDoc: Music

Halo Wars 2 ViDoc: Music is a video documentary by 343 Industries and Creative Assembly which discusses the music of Halo Wars 2.

Transcript

• Brian Lee White : When there’s Halo music, it’s very thematic, character-driven moments.
• Paul Lipson : There is a long legacy and for us we want to distill the essence of what those were.
• Brian Trifon : There's kind of a sacred element.
• Gordy Haab : The orchestra is larger than life sound.
• Paul Lipson : With Halo Wars 2, we were kind of handcuffs off and gloves off I mean it was like we have a chance to do something completely new.

COMPOSING CHARACTERS
The Music of Halo Wars 2

• Paul Lipson : When I sat down with Brian and Brian, he said hey you know we want to launch a whole another score, rebirth the whole franchise or part of our existing franchise how are we going to do that, and so we thought well let's call Gordy. Gordy’s someone I've known for years and we've been wanting to work together forever we were just waiting for that perfect project to show up. The Brians and their completely unique sound with Gordy's complete mastery of the orchestra, it was like wow I think this is going to be groundbreaking.
• Gordy Haab : Something that I wanted to do and we discussed this in the beginning was approach this score very thematically, so each character having a theme and sort of a more old-fashioned traditional approach to the score but done in a modern way.
• Brian Lee White : We wanted new themes and that still kind of felt feels like Halo but it also moves the story further and taking the sound you know into the sort of next generation of Halo music.
• Brian Trifon : With Atriox, he’s a brute and a huge intimidating character there's a darkness to a lot of of the sound texture with him.
• Gordy Haab : He's a tragic figure in an interesting way there's a little bit of a sort of a sadness and a hope. As an audience member you see this character and you can relate in some way and understand where he's coming from, and I think that the best villains in history always has this backstory that you can relate to and so you can understand exactly why they are the way they are.
• Paul Lipson : You know it's funny just like we have this compelling new character with Atriox, Isabel is just as compelling if not maybe even more so in a different way. We wanted someone to be relatable there was a delicate side of emotional side, but there's a really strong side to her too.
• Gordy Haab : Isabel is a hero and we wanted to approach it that way and make sure that it was a theme that could be translated and heightened in the important moments.
• Paul Lipson : But then there's also how her theme intersects with Atriox’s theme. This is true crafted orchestral writing and this is Gordy's mastery of the orchestra coming into play.
• Gordy Haab : For me it was a great challenge to actually get in and study the sound, sort of the harmonic language of the Halo world.
• Brian Lee White : I knew it was going to be cool but until we heard it being performed by the orchestra at Fox.
• Gordy Haab : Suddenly it comes to life and it’s an amazing, breathing, living thing.