Skyrim:Music

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Cover art of the Skyrim soundtrack

Skyrim's music was composed by Jeremy Soule, who also composed the music for both Oblivion and Morrowind.

The complete in-game music is almost 4 hours in length.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack can be purchased as a four-disc set through DirectSong. It can also be purchased from iTunes.

Disc	Track number	Title	File Name	Length	Type
01	01	Dragonborn	mus_maintheme	03:57	Special
01	02	Awake	mus_special_cartintro_01	01:34	Special
01	03	From Past to Present	mus_town_day_02 / mus_explore_day_02	05:06	Town
01	04	Unbroken Road	mus_explore_day_06	06:26	Explore
01	05	Ancient Stones	mus_town_day_04	04:47	Town
01	06	The City Gates	mus_town_day_01	03:48	Town
01	07	Silent Footsteps	mus_dungeon_03	02:53	Dungeon
01	08	Dragonsreach	mus_castle_stormcloaks	02:22	other
01	09	Tooth and Claw	mus_combat_01	01:50	Combat
01	10	Under an Ancient Sun	mus_explore_day_01	03:43	Explore
01	11	Death or Sovngarde	mus_combat_06	03:02	Combat
01	12	Masser	mus_explore_night_03	06:06	Explore
01	13	Distant Horizons	mus_explore_morning_02	03:54	Explore
01	14	Dawn	mus_explore_morning_01	03:59	Explore
01	15	The Jerall Mountains	mus_explore_day_04	03:21	Explore
01	16	Steel on Steel	mus_combat_02	01:45	Combat
01	17	Secunda	mus_explore_night_02	02:05	Explore
01	18	Imperial Throne	mus_castle_imperial_01	02:22	other
02	19	Frostfall	mus_explore_day_03	03:28	Explore
02	20	Night without Stars	mus_dread_04	00:43	Dread
02	21	Into Darkness	mus_dungeon_01	02:54	Dungeon
02	22	Kyne's Peace	mus_explore_night_01	03:51	Explore
02	23	Unbound	unknown	01:34	other
02	24	Far Horizons	mus_explore_day_08	05:33	Explore
02	25	A Winter's Tale	mus_tavern_03	03:21	Tavern
02	26	The Bannered Mare	mus_tavern_02	02:30	Tavern
02	27	The Streets of Whiterun	mus_town_day_03	04:06	Town
02	28	One They Fear	mus_combat_boss_02	03:16	Combat
02	29	The White River	mus_explore_day_05	03:31	Explore
02	30	Silence Unbroken	mus_dungeon_02	02:23	Dungeon
02	31	Standing Stones	mus_explore_night_06	06:38	Explore
02	32	Beneath the Ice	mus_dungeon_ice_01 / mus_dungeon_ice_02	04:16	Dungeon
02	33	Tundra	mus_explore_dusk_02	03:51	Explore
02	34	Journey's End	mus_explore_day_07	04:09	Explore
03	35	Before the Storm	mus_intro	01:09	Special
03	36	A Chance Meeting	mus_tavern_04	03:11	Tavern
03	37	Out of the Cold	mus_tavern_01	03:04	Tavern
03	38	Around the Fire	mus_tavern_05	03:11	Tavern
03	39	Shadows and Echoes	mus_dungeon_cave_03	02:21	Dungeon
03	40	Caught off Guard	mus_combat_03	01:12	Combat
03	41	Aurora	mus_explore_night_05	07:23	Explore
03	42	Blood and Steel	mus_combat_04	02:12	Combat
03	43	Towers and Shadows	mus_dungeon_fort_02	02:23	Dungeon
03	44	Seven Thousand Steps	mus_discover_highhrothgar	01:08	other
03	45	Solitude	mus_explore_night_04	02:12	Explore
03	46	Watch the Skies	mus_combat_boss_03	02:22	Combat
03	47	The Gathering Storm	mus_explore_dusk_01	02:55	Explore
03	48	Sky Above, Voice Within	mus_explore_dusk_03	03:58	Explore
03	49	Death in the Darkness	mus_dungeon_cave_01	02:37	Dungeon
03	50	Shattered Shields	mus_dungeon_fort_01	02:40	Dungeon
03	51	Sovngarde	mus_sovngarde_chant_lp	03:38	other
03	52	Wind Guide You	mus_explore_day_09	09:05	Explore
04	53	Skyrim Atmospheres	none	42:34	other

Awards

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. Noire. It was also nominated by Game Audio Network Guild for Music of the Year and Best Original Soundtrack Album, but again lost. The main theme, Dragonborn, won the Game Audio Network Guild's Best Original Vocal (Choral) award.

New arrangements

Although most of the music is new, a few motifs from Morrowind and Oblivion make a recurring appearance:

• "Dragonborn" is the latest version of what Todd Howard has called the "Elder Scrolls Theme". It first appeared as "Call of Magic" (aka "Nerevar Rising") in Morrowind and then as "Reign of the Septims" in Oblivion. The latest version is the first to include lyrics, sung by a men's choir in the dragon tongue. The original version and a translation appear in-game in the book Songs of Skyrim.
• 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 piece "Wind Guide You" is a remake of "Minstrel's Lament", which also appeared in Oblivion.

Extracting the PC version music

In previous games the music was available as MP3 files in the main game directory, but for Skyrim the files have been included in Skyrim - Sounds.bsa, and encoded with a ".xwm" extension. Once extracted from the BSA, they can be played using the VideoLAN media player, this is also able to convert them to other formats, such as MP3.

You can use the program BSAUnpack to extract files from .bsa archives. You can use the program Skyrim Audio Converter to convert .xwm files to .mp3

The music can be converted to wav via xWMAEncode.exe found in the Microsoft DirectX Software Developer's Kit. The SDK is about 500MB compressed and requires installation, but the basic exe is a standalone encoder/decoder, thus best found and used without the kit.

The Main Theme can be found in the "special" directory.

Notes

• The compression algorithms used by the game can cause parts of the soundtrack to drop out or be over-emphasized. For instance, the percussion section is far more audible in the in-game version of "Tooth and Claw" than in the soundtrack version. Compare the in-game version of "Tooth and Claw" to the soundtrack version.
• "Skyrim Atmospheres" consists of various pieces of ambiance, sound effects, and music from the game, notably the mus_palette tracks.
• Two extended pieces of music are missing from the official release: mus_combat_boss and mus_dungeon_cave_02. Most of the shorter tracks have also been excluded.
• Dawnguard and Dragonborn both contain new pieces of music that have not been released for download.