Pythagoras and his cult came up with a lot of good stuff and a lot of nutso stuff. One thing they did that was nutso is believe the planets created music in proportion to their orbits. This made more sense then, since they were perceived to travel on spheres, and each orbit was a solid sphere which might have resonant frequencies. The concept is called the Music of the Spheres, referring to the celestial spheres on which the planets travel. They actually thought a bunch of crazy stuff about music, and crazy stuff about space, too. Like they thought the Earth revolved around a central fire with an anti Earth at its other side. Anyway, here's an engraving in Church Latin with info on the orbits, their corresponding Classical muses, and their musical signatures.

THIS is the music of the spheres he is talking about and referencing. It's probably a musical theme written for each of the planets in a corresponding scale.

I'm probably going to write something longer on it, but it is interesting to note that both O'Donnell and Bungie only prevailed on one claim each out of many, and the one that Bungie prevailed on was largely irrelevant.

I'm not sure what constitutes a claim, but the arbitrator found that Bungie was correct in two accusations. Firstly they claimed Marty had their property-- copies of Music of the Spheres-- and the arbitrator agreed and it's now been returned. Secondly they claimed that he violated their copyright by distributing and performing the music without permission, and the arbitrator agreed there too, but because he gave out a copy before the copyright was filed, pursuant to a corner of copyright law I'd never heard of before, they can't get the damages they were seeking-- but they can get other relief, which I wasn't able to find the details of.

What's more interesting, though, and not portrayed in the news summaries I've seen, is that O'Donnell prevailed not because what Bungie did actually broke any of the contracts between O'Donnell and Bungie. In fact, two of O'Donnell's claims that alleged that were denied. However, it was within Bungie's power to terminate O'Donnell without depriving him of all his shares, and since the arbitrator is empowered by the agreement and JAMS rules to decide what is fair and equitable, he decided it was fair and equitable to award O'Donnell 60% of his previously unvested shares, and that Bungie had violated the concept of "fair dealing" that underpins all contract law.

Yeah, it sounded to me like they were trying to argue that because they gave him a performance review and found his performance "unacceptable" they were justified in withholding those things. It sounded like the arbitrator was saying maybe they would have been legally justified if there was anything in writing that said it worked that way, but there wasn't so they had to give him his shares.

I think it's also worth noting Marty had the chance to claim vested shares and have a say in the company, and chose not to. If that was because he doesn't want to try to push people around that don't want him involved, or because he doesn't want to deal with them at all, or because because of the larger cash value, no one can say but him.

I'm probably going to write something longer on it, but it is interesting to note that both O'Donnell and Bungie only prevailed on one claim each out of many, and the one that Bungie prevailed on was largely irrelevant.

I've written a blog post based on the arbitrator's award, with a link to the award itself.

Arbitrator Partially Restores Composer O'Donnell's Bungie Shares

In short, it appears Bungie's attorneys made mistakes in drafting various agreements, some large and some small. Some, the arbitrator waved away as minor and not transforming the character of the agreement in the manner O'Donnell alleged, and one opened up a loophole that let the arbitrator give O'Donnell anything the board could have, but didn't-- leaving it up to the arbitrator to decide what was fair and equitable.

In short, either Ryan got bad advice from counsel, or got good advice and didn't listen to it.

Music, like all forms of art, is subjective.

The fact that we have "technically" already heard 40 of the 48 pieces of music from Music of the Spheres means nothing to me, because that music has been ripped out of its original context, cut apart, and presented to us out of its intended order.

I still hope they release this thing one day, if not for Marty, then at least for Paul McCartney. He worked on it too, Bungie! I know you're withholding it to spite Marty, but you're spiting one of the Beatles too!

Did you hear that track? Just curious.

I thought he worked on more than just the one track. Marty said stuff about McCartney giving him tips on some things.

Bits of the Hope for the Future melody can be heard in the rotating Tower music. I think Except from The Hope is the track on the OST that contains it. You can hear a slow version of the "Some wait for the future, some..." part within the first minute.

As I understand it, Paul worked closely with Marty on the entirety of Music of the Spheres, and then did the song as sort of a bonus "here's something fun to cap off the whole experience" type of thing.

Paul's name appears as co-writer on all excerpts from MotS that were included in the OST (EDIT: Most of the excerpts - not all), as well as on a couple of other tracks.

Music, like all forms of art, is subjective.

The fact that we have "technically" already heard 40 of the 48 pieces of music from Music of the Spheres means nothing to me, because that music has been ripped out of its original context, cut apart, and presented to us out of its intended order.

I still hope they release this thing one day, if not for Marty, then at least for Paul McCartney. He worked on it too, Bungie! I know you're withholding it to spite Marty, but you're spiting one of the Beatles too!

Did you hear that track? Just curious.

I thought he worked on more than just the one track. Marty said stuff about McCartney giving him tips on some things.

Presumably he did, but I was just wondering if, after hearing the one track with McCartney's vocals that was released, your reaction was that you wanted more of that.

Again... just curious.