Soule Discovery

A while back, I wrote about the most recent Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, which provided me dozens of hours of enjoyment and took me back to the type of "you're the sole savior of the entire damn world" RPGs that I loved so much growing up. (In the near future, I'll talk about its new expansion, Dawnguard.)

One aspect of the game I neglected to talk last time around was its music. The score to Skyrim was provided by Jeremy Soule, a veteran composer of the medium who has created tons of video game music, including that for Skyrim's predecessor's, Morrowind and Oblivion. Skyrim has over three-and-a-half hours of his music, and while I certainly get to hear it while playing the game itself, it's difficult to give it the attention it deserves while I'm busy slaying dragons. What's more, a great deal of the music is tailored to specific moments in the plot, and are thus played only once as you go through the main quest line.

Fortunately, there is another way. The composer has made available through his own label a 4-CD set of the music from the game. You can purchase your own copy here, if you're a fan. I already have.

The vast majority of the music is intended to fade mentally into the background, providing atmosphere while you play the game while not calling any undue attention to itself. So admittedly, there are large chunks of the music that don't stand up particularly well to listening in an isolated format like this. Still, this music specifically composed for the background can easily become background outside of the game -- something to engage other parts of your mind as you perform some otherwise menial task.

But there are also several tracks in the score that really shine when you listen more closely. The opening theme of the Dragonborn will of course be familiar to anyone who has played the game, and the full 4-minute version here is a feast for the ears that's both exciting and chilling in turns. There are a number of other aggressive battle tracks that are equally fun. Even some of those quieter songs I mentioned stand out from the others with their evocative and haunting melodies. (A pair of pieces named for Tamriel's two moons struck me as especially lovely.)

Forced to give a grade to the entire soundtrack, I think I'd probably only give Skyrim's music a B-. There's simply a lot of music here that doesn't do well outside its intended format. But there are more than enough gems here to compile an hour's worth of truly remarkable music that's just as fun to hear outside the game as in. Depending on how big a fan you are of the game or the music (or both), the purchase price of the 4-disc set may be worth it for those tracks.