The music of Ultima 9 was composed by George Oldziey, who was probably best known at the time for his work on the live-action Wing Commander games. It represented a drastic evolution in terms of Ultima soundtracks, no longer being synthesized but rather recorded by a live forty-piece orchestra.
Download the soundtrack:
The soundtrack for Ultima 9, as included with the Dragon Edition of the game.
Extra music tracks taken from various in-game segments of Ultima 9.
While Ultima 9 did offer renditions of the two iconic Ultima tunes, Stones and Rule Britannia, it otherwise featured completely original music. Since the Britannian Virtues were the main focus of the plot, Oldziey chose to use a thematic approach based around them, composing a leitmotif for each of the three Principles: Truth, Love and Courage; and their opposites: Falsehood, Hatred and Cowardice. As such, each town was given two themes: one based on the Principles of its respective Virtue, and another conceived from its “anti-Principles” while it was under the influence of the Columns. For instance, the negative music of Trinsic wove the Falsehood and Cowardice themes together, while its positive counterpart used Truth and Courage. To make each city feel more unique, each of them also used a specific set of instruments and orchestration, thus making it recognizable in both its positive and negative forms.
In addition, specific themes were written for other cities not related to any of the Virtues. Multiple combat themes (with a fast and slow-paced version of each) were also featured, with the score varying depending on the kind of enemy faced in battle.
The music remained mostly constant throughout the game, looping whenever the player was in a town or embroiled in combat. The wilderness, however, offered some quieter moments.
Offered here for your listening pleasure, then, are the twenty-one (21) tracks which were included on the soundtrack CD that shipped with the Dragon Edition of Ultima 9, as well as an additional thirty (30) tracks taken from the game itself. Sergorn Dragon graciously provided all of the music available here.
(Descriptive text taken from the Codex of Ultima Wisdom)
