Halo 2 Original Soundtrack

The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack for Bungie's 2004 video game "Halo 2". The soundtrack was released as two separate volumes, released almost two years apart. "Volume 1", released at the same time as "Halo 2" on November 9, 2004, contains arranged instrumental pieces written by Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori, as well as "inspired-by" tracks from bands Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin. "Volume 2" was released on April 25, 2006 and contains all the game music arranged in a suite form.
O'Donnell, who had previously composed the music for Bungie games such as "Myth" and ", sought to develop the "Halo" sound" of the previous game as well as introduce new sounds and influences to the music. The music was based on what was happening in the game, rather than using leitmotifs or theme repetitively. The music was recorded in pieces with a fifty-piece orchestra at Studio X in Seattle, Washington. To mark its release both Microsoft and Sumthing Else Music Works planned an aggressive marketing campaign.
Upon release, the music of "Halo 2" was praised. Critics were split on the merits of "Volume 1", with some publications enjoying the bonus offerings while others felt the first volume lacked cohesion. "Volume 2" was declared the "real" soundtrack to "Halo 2". Upon release both soundtracks became commercial successes, with more than 100,000 copies sold. The soundtracks' success was pointed to as a sign of increasing legitimacy of video game music in the entertainment industry. "Halo"s music has since been played in concert settings, including "Play! A Video Game Symphony" and "Video Games Live".
Background.
In the summer of 2004, "Halo 2" composer Martin O'Donnell and album producer Nile Rodgers decided it would be a good idea to present "Halo 2"s music in two distinct volumes. The first volume would contain the game's themes that were finished and mixed as well as "inspired-by" offerings from other artists. The first volume was released alongside the video game as "Volume 1" on November 9 of the same year. As the soundtrack was finished before all the in-game music was completed, none of the tracks written by O'Donnell appear in "Halo 2" in the same arrangement. The bands featured in "Volume 1", including Breaking Benjamin and Incubus, were enthusiastic about adding music to the soundtrack. Incubus was tapped to produce a suite of music which appears scattered throughout the soundtrack as four movements. Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger said that ""Halo" is the only video game that ever inspired us to write a whole suite [of music]."
The first pieces of music O'Donnell wrote for "Halo 2" were promotional in nature; O'Donnell scored the cinematic announcement trailer for "Halo 2" on August 2, 2002, and followed up with interactive music for the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2003 "Halo 2" demo. O'Donnell confirmed that the chanting monks of "Halo: Combat Evolved"s choral theme, along with additional guitars by Steve Vai, would return in "Halo 2". O'Donnell noted that the new setting of Africa prompted him to look at "Afro-Cuban" influences, but most of this type of music did not make it to the final product. Rather than write for locations or use leitmotifs for all the different characters in what O'Donnell called a ""Peter and the Wolf" approach to music", O'Donnell wrote "sad music for sad moments, scary music to score the scary bits and so forth." Recurring themes developed more by accident than planning. Recording of orchestrated music was completed over several sessions with the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra at Studio X in Seattle, Washington.
Nile Rodgers produced both volumes of the soundtrack, in addition to writing and performing the track "Never Surrender" in collaboration with songwriter/remixer Nataraj. Rodgers himself is a video game player, noting in an interview that "30% to 40% of the [recording] budget was spent in downtime playing video games. Since all that money was going to that part of the recording session, I decided to figure out what was so compelling about it, and I got hooked [by the game]."
Due to legal issues, the second "Halo 2" soundtrack containing the entire finished score, "Volume 2", was not released until more than a year after the soundtrack had been mixed and mastered. The volume's music is formatted in a 'suite' structure that corresponds with the chapters within the game, in order to create a "music representation" of the video game. O'Donnell stated that this presentation of the music as a concept album was natural because the overall story and atmosphere of "Halo 2" directly influenced the sound to begin with.
Promotion.
The first volume of the "Halo 2 Original Soundtrack" was specifically timed to coincide with the launch of the video game, to cash in on the ""Halo" effect"; players would go to buy the game and get the soundtrack and other merchandise by association. The first several million copies of the game sold all contained promotional inserts for the soundtrack. The soundtrack was seen as an integral part of the marketing and merchandise push Microsoft planned for "Halo 2". The soundtrack's publisher, Sumthing Distribution, also planned and executed an aggressive marketing campaign, including special music listening stations and side-by-side soundtrack and game placement at participating retailers. The "Halo Theme MJOLNIR Mix", the first track on Volume 1, was released on November 22, 2007 as a free track for "" on the Xbox 360.
Reception.

Agnes Huntington

Agnes Huntington (later, Agnes Huntington Cravath; ca. 1864 – March 10, 1953) was an American operatic singer. For several years, she received private tutoring in Europe for music, languages, and drawing. She had a notable career in concert and opera as a prima donna contralto.
Early years and education.
Agnes Huntington was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in ca. 1864. She was the daughter of Charles E. and Fannie E. (Munsell) Huntington and was raised by them in New York City.
She was educated at Mrs. Sylvanus Reed's School for Girls in New York City. In 1880, her family decided that she should follow a career of her own choosing. She hesitated to choose between music and art, for both were attractive to her, and she finally decided to become an operatic singer. Her rich contralto voice was inherited from her mother.
Huntington went to Dresden in 1880, where she studied for four years with Giovanni Battista Lamperti. Said Huntington:—
Career.
Huntington made her first public appearance in concert in Dresden, in January, 1884, and a few weeks later, sang at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with the regular orchestra under direction of Carl Reinecke. Later appearances were in Stuttgart with Joseph Joachim (Hungarian violinist), then with Pablo de Sarasate (Spanish violinist), and Klintworth and his orchestra at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. She next appeared in a concert given by Alexandre Guilmant and Édouard Colonne and his Concerts Colonne orchestra at the Trocadéro in Paris. Later, she appeared in concerts in London in association with great musicians and conductors, including Sir Julius Benedict, Wilhelm Ganz, Alberto Randegger, Sir George Grove and others, which brought her much social attention. At this time, she received from the then Princess of Wales (later, the Dowager Queen Alexandra) a beautiful brooch of precious stones. She also sang in Paris. 
In 1885, she made her American debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Theodore Thomas, who engaged her for the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and other concerts, of which he was the conductor. She also sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with William Goricke, the Oratorio Society of New York with Walter Damrosch, and in many of the most important festivals under the greatest conductors in the U.S. and Canada. After making a tour of the principal cities, she joined the Boston Ideal Opera Company, and with that company, she sang successfully for several seasons. Next, she sang with the Bostonians, in which she visited the principal cities of the United States and Canada, appearing in the leading roles of the standard operas, for which her commanding presence and contralto voice eminently fitted her. With the Bostonians, she gained experience in acting, singing in "Martha", "Giralda", "Fra Diavolo", "Les Mousquetaires de la reine", "The Bohemian Girl", Mignon", and others. 
In 1889 she went to London, under the management of the Carl Rosa Opera Company, having signed for a season of concert, oratorio, and light opera. There, she created the title role in "Paul Jones" by Robert Planquette, in which she made a great hit. Originally put on for a short run, "Paul Jones" remained on the boards during 346 nights in the Prince of Wales Theatre, and at every performance the house was crowded. A dispute with her managers led her to leave the company, and she returned to the U.S.
When Huntington's year in London was finished, she determined to become a star and produce her own operas. Under the management of Marcus Mayer she began her career as a star in "Paul Jones" in New York, and she could have selected no better production. She asserted that her short experience convinced her that the public had grown tired of coarse fun and vulgarity and would patronize opéra comique that was clean and pure, with a story to tell, a consistent plot to unfold, and ennobled with good music and well-concerted orchestration, and that her ventures were made upon this assumption.
The ambition of Huntington as a caterer of operatic productions for the entertainment of the public led her to constant novelty and progressiveness, and as a result, she presented Planquette's work, "Captain Therese". As Huntington personally superintended all of her own productions in every detail, the amount of labor which devolves upon her may be imagined, and her own description of her work in this respect was thus:—
In all her travels, Huntington was accompanied by her mother, who proved to be her best friend and adviser, and between the two there existed the utmost devotion. With her company, Huntington is deservedly popular. If she is a strict disciplinarian, she is also generous, and the slightest complaint of any wrong or oversight finds her always a willing listener and quick to rectify any error. On the occasion of the disbandment of her company in 1891, a list was presented to her of the fines inflicted upon several of the members during its continuance for tardiness and oversights. In some cases, these amounted to considerable sums. She generously remitted every fine, paid her company in full, and re-engaged its best members on the spot.
Not the least drag upon her time was correspondence involved in answers to the many letters she received from girls about how to adopt the stage, asking her advice regarding the qualifications necessary and the best means of procuring engagements. These letters she felt it a duty to answer. She encouraged none with false hopes, but represented the trials and labors of stage life fully and clearly, so that the frivolous were deterred, while the truly ambitious were encouraged. Most careful and painstaking in every effort, she abhorred nothing so much as a sham, and would not tolerate meretricious advertising or any tricks of the trade, so often resorted to by actors for the sake of notoriety. She trusted entirely to the excellence of her productions, upon which she spared no expense in staging, and in which her entire fortune was invested, and to her own merit, for recognition and patronage. She had in her efforts shown English opéra comique to be a high grade of entertaining amusement.
Huntington was tall, fair and of commanding presence. Her voice was a pure, clear, strong and thoroughly cultivated contralto. In London, her social successes were as great as her professional ones. Among her intimate friends, there were the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the Duchess of Westminster, and other prominent personages. She served as director of the New York Symphony Society, and the Institute of Musical Arts and others.
Personal life.
On November 15, 1892, in Saint Thomas Church, Manhattan, she married attorney Paul Drennan Cravath, with whom she had one daughter, Vera Agnes Huntington Cravath (b. 1895). Following marriage, she became a director of several charities, and contributed to many charitable societies. She was an animal activist, and a member of the Colony Club. Huntington was Episcopalian, and opposed women's suffrage.
She resided at 105 E. Thirty-ninth Street, in New York City, with a country estate in Locust Valley, Long Island, New York. Huntington died in Manhattan, on March 10, 1953, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx.