Oblivion:Music

thumb|right|Cover art of the Oblivion soundtrack thumb|right|Original cover
Oblivion's music was composed by Jeremy Soule. It is available from iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play, and was previously available from Directsong. If you have the PC version of the game, you can find the music files in the Oblivion\Data\Music folder, divided into 5 sub-folders depending on where they are used. They do not have the descriptive track-names and ID3-tags you'd get by purchasing them from Directsong, but are otherwise identical.

The music varies from slow, "exploration" themes to faster, "battle" themes. It is often easy to tell when an enemy sees the player character because the music will change sharply.

Soundtrack
There are 28 tracks in total but only 26 are included in the soundtrack. The tracks "Success" and "Death" are not included  and are played when the player levels up and dies, respectively. The game divides the tracks into five categories:
Special: These tracks are played at special times during the game. See Notes for more information.
Explore: All of these tracks are randomly played one after another while the player is in the countryside (outside cities and dungeons).
Public: All of these tracks are randomly played one after another while the player is in a city, inn, house, or chapel.
Dungeon: All of these tracks are randomly played one after another while the player is in a dungeon (Ayleid ruins, caves, forts, mines etc).
Battle: All of these tracks are randomly played one after another while the player is under attack.



Development and reception
Awards
It won the MTV Music Award for Best Video Game Score  and the Official Xbox Magazine's Soundtrack of the Year . The score was also nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Award, losing out to Tomb Raider: Legend , and for the Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition award of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, which it lost to LocoRoco. 

Jeremy Soule's commentary
Jeremy Soule stated that while composing the music he did not imagine any specific characters or events; rather, he wanted it "to comment on the human condition and the beauty of life". In a 2006 interview, he related that this desire came as a result of a car accident that occurred during his composition of the score. He said, "I ended up rolling in my car several times on an interstate while flying headlong into oncoming traffic ... I felt no fear ... I simply just acknowledged to myself that I've had a good life and I would soon have to say goodbye to all of it in a matter of seconds". Soule sustained only minor injuries, but commented that his feeling during the crash—"that life is indeed precious"—remained with him throughout the rest of the composition.  

Soule has shared some background on his composition for a couple of tracks:

:Fall of the Hammer:
:* ''Celtic dance music has always fascinated me, and it is an inspiration I incorporated into this melee composition. There's just something that comes from nature itself when Celtic melodies and progressions are presented. And these sounds, once married into the ultimate human instrument known as the symphonic orchestra, tell an epic tale.   

:Minstrel's Lament:
:*My own personal favorite from Oblivion...  
:*Another example of the "Elder" motif, this time in Oblivion. You can   the cadence in the men's voices in the final bars.''  

Live Version
In 2009, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra & Kuehn's Mixed Choir released an album called "Play! A Video Game Symphony" that consisted of orchestral versions of video game soundtracks. A nine-minute medley consisting of Reign of the Septims, Glory of Cyrodiil and ''Watchman's Ease'' features as track 11. The orchestra took the music on a world tour, including an April 2010 performance in Eugene, Oregon, which was attended by Jeremy Soule himself. 

Notes
The track "Auriel's Ascension" is not included on the original Xbox 360 version of the game. However, it is included on the PC and PS3 versions and the GotY edition of the Xbox 360 version. The track is also not included on Xbox One, as even the GotY disk uses the base game for backwards compatibility purposes.
A slightly different version of "Reign of the Septims" is used for the game's introductory cutscene.
A section of "Reign of the Septims" is used in The Elder Scrolls: Legends for Chaos Arena loading screens. Wes Johnson, the voice actor for Sheogorath, hums along.
The battle theme "Daedra in Flight" and the five dungeon themes are present in the data files for    's  , allowing   content and mods to make use of them. Notably, "Daedra in Flight" is featured in the Umbra Creation and "Wind from the Depths" is featured in the Saints & Seducers Creation.
Not all places play the expected type of music. For example, an "Explore" tune is played in the Cheydinhal Fighters Guild Hall even though it's in a city. A "Dungeon" tune is played in the basement of The Oak and Crosier even though the upper floors use "Public" music.
All tracks have significantly shorter playtimes than the ones listed above. The last few seconds are blank. This is most likely to break up the tracks in-game and give the player's ear a rest before moving on to the next track.
The track "Through the Valleys" is a reworking of Morrowind's "Silt Sunrise".
There is a track called   in the Oblivion folder which is the music played when the launch menu opens. The track is a sample of the 44 last seconds of "Reign of the Septims".

References