Well they brought back those awesome tribal monk chants even if they aren't word-for-word so to speak. We hadn't had those since Halo CE, the tribal ones took a back seat to the gregorian chants of single syllables. Not that it's a bad thing by any means but I love that they're getting some more fleshing out here. I can already hear a few recurring themes:
- The "tse la de ee ma le no" is a 7-note riff that can be heard in Revival (DJ Skee & THX Remix Sample Edit), Nemesis and Revival, all with variations (including a string piece that uses the exact same notes in Revival). I think this is absolutely the ancient evil's theme, who's more than likely Didact's theme.
- To Galaxy is basically cockteasing every recurring Halo theme in the series in a single track, even though one or two might take some effort to pick out.
- Awakening has a five-note riff (the baaa-naaa, naaaa-naaaaa-naaaaaa done by the pianos in the original Sample Edit) that is prevalent throughout the entire track, sometimes shortened to four notes.
These are just a few and some recurring motifs are already very present; a major difference here is that Davidge is letting the instrumentation become iconic and allowing the melodies to complement it rather than the other way around, which is what may be confusing to some people at first. It doesn't help that Halo CE had maybe five themes or so:
Main Theme
Title (space monks)
The Flood (pretty much every horror piece, way more noticeable in CEA's soundtrack)
Brothers in Arms
Ambience Suite (Prevalent in a lot of the more technological pieces like Alien Corridors)
And about 85% of the remaining tracks were mixed in some way from them. Even The Library uses the main theme in its synth bells, just really really slowed down. I think as people play Halo 4 to the soundtrack rather than having to base it by itself it'll all click a lot more easily--maybe even moreso than Marty's scores.
