I don't know why they ditched Chip Ellinghaus and Grant Slawson. Those two wrote a fantastic (albeit brief) score for Redguard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFRnqQSty2s), that was fantastic in the Elder Scrolls series.

I really like a lot of Jeremy Soule's music. His Neverwinter Nights score is great, his Guild Wars Prophecies and Factions (and the Nightfall theme) are brilliant. Above all, I adore Soule's music for Morrowind, the exploring and the main title are wonderful. Just a shame they're not played by a real orchestra. But the rehash of the theme song ('Nerevar Rising'?) into the main score of Oblivion was a bad move, because prior to that all the Elder Scrolls games had a unique title for each instalment. It felt like the recycling of the main theme was just a cheapened rendition and didn't manage to hold the magic because the original orchestrations and tune were the best composition to date. It's absolutely cringe-worthy when people harp on about how Oblivion's title was better than Morrowind. The rest of the music in Oblivion is really nice, makes its presence felt without overwhelming the ambience.

Likewise, when they said "Oh we've brought the 'Elder Scrolls title' back for Skyrim" I wanted to scream because, actually, it's the Morrowind title, being reconfigured almost beyond recognition. So if it's been revamped so much, why bother sticking to it at all? GAHHH.

One thing I'm sure of is that Soule has never ever ever ever ever composed good battle music for Elder Scrolls. Isn't it possible to have some awesome, upbeat music with a rocking tune, rather than just having ominous and tedious drums crammed with obscure percussion. His score for Neverwinter Nights was actually pretty fantastic this theme popped up for battles - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ZLeF1urMI&feature=related - and I would LOVE fighting.

I, too, love Soule, but has he ever really done great battle music? Take KotOR for example. Really beautiful atmospheric music but the battle music was very...forgettable? Sometimes obnoxious?

I loved the Redguard music, though I guess it did get repetitive after the 10th hour or so. The whole Redguard intro effectively melted my face with TES-lore awesomeness the first time I saw it. When the score first kicks in and the Redguard logo burns through the map? Epic.

Ooh, thanks for that! I never knew who composed Redguard's stellar theme. Favorite Elder Scrolls intro, by far - "with its High King dead, Hammerfell is crippled!"