In this metaphor, I presented what I call the "walker" (or soul) whose footsteps are represented in plodding half notes. This narrative also starts with a metaphor. Overall, I wanted the theme of the narrative to be about a dark hope and an illustration of an almost unsaid acknowledgement of a repressed truth. The second was to provide an enlightened incentive to overcome the adversity, and the third part of my construct was to provide a sense of scale of the world to create relevance for the entire idiom (the frame of the painting). The first part of my structure/device was the acknowledgement of adversity. This was accomplished through a specific structure. My multi-layered approach was to embolden the player with a narrative. This composition was challenging despite the slow tempo and monolithic movements. And with Skyrim, I also wanted to instill a sense of purpose in the environment in spite of the various adversaries or intimidating landscapes-all frequently seen in the game. So why am I doing all of this when I make music? I want to always move the player forward. But, for those that are interested, I want to provide a window into the intense factoring that goes on each and every time I create music. That said, I don't want to seem self-indulgent with an arduously long post. And, I wish more composers would speak more about their creative process. Some composers are shy or indignant about disclosing their back-processes. To illustrate my process, I sometimes speak in English as my music is being performed to describe, in real-time, what each phrase is communicating. And like some "multilingual" persons, it is sometimes difficult for me to clearly express what is going on in my head. From Past to Presentįor me, music is a literal language. As some of the comments are long, they are hidden in show/hide tags. "Unbroken Road" shares a motif with "Reign of the Septims," first recognizable at 0:26 in "Reign of the Septims" and 0:58 of "Unbroken Road."Ĭomposer Jeremy Soule has shared his inspirations and background information about some of the tracks on the soundtrack.The piece "Wind Guide You" is a remake of "Minstrel's Lament", which also appeared in Oblivion.The track "The Jerall Mountains" originally appeared in Morrowind as "Rise to Reality" ("Silt Sunrise" in the Special Edition soundtrack) and in Oblivion as "Through the Valleys".The original version and a translation appear in-game in the book Songs of Skyrim. The latest version is the first to include lyrics, sung by a men's choir in the dragon tongue. It first appeared as "Call of Magic" (aka "Nerevar Rising") in Morrowind and then as "Reign of the Septims" in Oblivion. "Dragonborn" is the latest version of what Todd Howard has called the "Elder Scrolls Theme".New arrangementsĪlthough most of the music is new, a few motifs from Morrowind and Oblivion make a recurring appearance: The main theme, Dragonborn, won the Game Audio Network Guild's Best Original Vocal (Choral) award. It was also nominated by Game Audio Network Guild for Music of the Year and Best Original Soundtrack Album, but again lost. Skyrim's soundtrack was nominated by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts for Best Score in the Game Music Category, but was beaten by L.A. File Nameĭragonborn uses many tracks directly from Morrowind's soundtrack, but it adds several new tracks too. Discĭawnguard adds several more unnamed tracks. The soundtrack can be purchased from DirectSong and iTunes.