Martin O'Donnell
| Martin O'Donnell | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Born | May 1, 1955 |
| Genres | Classical, video game |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, audio director, sound designer |
Martin "Marty" O'Donnell (born May 1, 1955) is an American composer known for his work on video game developer Bungie's series, such as Myth, Oni, Halo, and Destiny. O'Donnell collaborated with his musical colleague Michael Salvatori for many of the scores; he has also directed voice talent and sound design for the Halo trilogy. O'Donnell was Bungie's audio lead until April 11, 2014.
O'Donnell began his music career writing television and radio jingles such as the FintStones vitamins song and scoring for radio stations and films. O'Donnell moved to composing video game music when his company, TotalAudio, did the sound design for the 1997 title Riven. After producing the music for Myth II, Bungie contracted O'Donnell to work on their other projects, including Oni and the project that would become Halo: Combat Evolved. O'Donnell ended up joining the Bungie staff only ten days before the studio was bought by Microsoft, and would be the audio director for all Bungie projects until he was fired.
O'Donnell's score to the Halo trilogy has been called iconic, earning him several awards, and the commercial soundtrack release of the music to Halo 2 was the best-selling video game soundtrack of all time in the United States. He then went on to compose the scores to Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, released on September 25, 2007, and September 14, 2010, respectively. His final work for Bungie was composing music for the 2014 video game Destiny.
O'Donnell describes his upbringing as "typical"; he received piano lessons and wanted to start a rock band when he reached junior high school. His father made films while his mother taught piano. Despite his interest in progressive and fusion rock, O'Donnell studied the classical component of music and composition at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music and received his Masters of Music Degree in composition with honors from the University of Southern California in the early 1980s.
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