The Gate - 09 - The Discarded Instrument (Music of the Spheres for Piano)
12This is a piece of music I’d made with the intention of being a “ninth” movement to The Discarded Instrument and Music of the Spheres, similar to how other composers wrote an additional "Pluto" movement for Holst. The idea is this: For the first seven tracks, Marty named all of them after the Geomantic symbols for the planets. The Nocturnal symbol for the Moon is "Via," or "The Path." There are sixteen symbols, split into nocturnal/diurnal, but Marty only used seven of the eight nocturnal ones. The eighth one is the "lunar node," which is basically like solar/lunar eclipses. Well, we have a theme for the Moon, Sun, and Earth, so I made this combining those themes into one. It's supposed to be the ninth piece for The Discarded Instrument, hence it being on piano. It doesn't have any tempo mapping done yet, so please treat this as a demo. I figured it would be nice to get this out for the occasion, as today is the one year anniversary of The Discarded Instrument being released.
It’s stylistically most inspired by Holst’s Neptune. I always kinda liked this as a piece, but just never had the energy to truly "finish" it. I would've pushed more if I could ever actually include this WITH The Discarded Instrument, but that would require opening a bunch of licensing issues that neither I nor Bungie have the time or resources to hammer out. That's the same reason a number of my (and Breshi's) current projects are moving away from using explicit Destiny material in our music going forward.
TL;DR yeah we're doing DLC for cover albums now
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Full YouTube playlist: • The Discarded Instrument (Music of the Sph...
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Program Notes:
"The Discarded Instrument" is a full set of piano adaptations of the symphonic & choral suite "Music of the Spheres," composed in 2011-12 by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and Sir Paul McCartney.
The original suite was written to embody the seven "wandering stars" as laid out by ancient astrologers such as Pythagoras and Ptolemy. It weaves a number of relevant concepts into its musical storytelling, from the fallen king Jupiter, to slow & beautiful Luna, to the eerie sounds of the major misfortune, Saturn. The first seven tracks represent these Seven Heavens, with the eighth track representing Earth and The Traveler, the mysterious sphere hanging low above Earth's last city from the video game the album preludes. The suite was largely inspired by C.S. Lewis's book "The Discarded Image," and the music even had a written accompaniment by poet and C.S. Lewis scholar Malcolm Guite.
Now, you're able to hear the full suite on piano, carefully adapted by using the orchestral scores from the original Abbey Road recording sessions. This new take was recorded using Synthogy's "Ivory Grand Pianos" library, the very same that composer Martin O'Donnell used when drafting the original suite. This provides an authentic window into how they may have sounded in their infancy, before becoming fully orchestrated. At least one of the eight pieces was fully written as a piano solo before work began on an orchestral version. These recordings represent this early stage of creativity & thought; an intimate & open sound that peaks into the essential components of the composition. I'm proud to present a window into this Discarded Instrument.
-Owen Spence
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THE DISCARDED INSTRUMENT
"Music of the Spheres" composed by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and Paul McCartney.
Original orchestrations by Mark McKenzie.
Adapted for piano by Owen Spence.
Production assistance by Xavier Scheetz.
Artwork by Owen Spence and Matt Farrell.
"Music of the Spheres" © 2012 Bungie, Inc. and MPL Communications LTD.
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE FOR PIANO
“Hope for the Future” composed by Paul McCartney, Ben Foster, Martin O’Donnell, and Michael Salvatori.
Original piano arrangement courtesy of Hal Leonard.
Additional arrangement by Owen Spence and Xavier Scheetz.
Vocal performances by Paulo Clayton.
"Hope for the Future" © 2012 MPL Communications LTD.
Included as part of Track 08 "The Hope" with permission.
"The Discarded Instrument" © 2024 Oakhost Creative Collective