Legacy

Legacy
Album:	Halo 4: Original Soundtrack
Composer(s):	Neil Davidge
Length:	2:31
Previous:	Requiem
Next:	Faithless

Legacy is the fourth track in Halo 4: Original Soundtrack.

Overview

The track features a prominent vocal with a solo female lead, accompanied by synth ambiance and a background choir.

Appearances

The track can be heard:

• In the fourth terminal, when the Didact talks to Forthencho about humanity's defeat and their inevitable fight against the Flood.
• In the level Reclaimer, when John-117 enters a Forerunner structure called the Librarian's Rest; mixed with the later track Aliens.

Production notes

• According to composer Neil Davidge, the track represented the Forerunner culture. He cited the Galactic Senate Chamber from the Star Wars prequel trilogy as one of the visual reference points that inspired the track.
• The vocal part was intended to be an idea for a traditional Forerunner language, similar to what Latin is to modern language. The Forerunner language was intended to be a unique choral sound and successor to the original Gregorian chant from Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori. The language also came to be the basis for the later tracks Revival and Nemesis.
• The parts of the lead singer and the female choir were performed by the same singer, Claire Tchaikowski. Tchaikowski recorded her vocals in Bristol, including some parts improvised from the Davidge's sketches, while the male vocals by the London Bulgarian Vocal Choir were recorded at Angel Recording Studios, London. Davidge added some processing to the voices, as he wanted it to sound like the performance itself was a memory.
• Inspired by traditional Bulgarian female choral music, Davidge initially wrote the original piece on synths from various drones, sonics, and tones (created with synths and a Kantele played with an ebow and Cello bow) with a traditional choir sample library to formulate the melody, so he asked vocalist Claire Tchaikowski to help make the language poetic and have feelings of importance as well as gravity. The final version of the track retains the synth ambiance from the original demo, with an orchestra section—arranged and recorded by Andrew Morgan and Davidge at Abbey Road studios—as well as mixing from Andy Bradfield and Davidge.