Music is a very personal thing, so it is hard to please everyone. Many people feel that music in games should be so 'good' that you don't even notice it. I don't, I think that is pointless. I think good music for a Total War experience should really inspire you even transport you to the places you wanted to go, to the feelings you want to feel when you bought the game in the very first place.
It took me a few years to find enough music of the right kind to be able to put together a soundtrack to the wars of Britain in 500 AD. I have tried to be as faithful to the spirit of the peoples in my choices as I could. I am both a historian and a musician so I was keen to do the best job possible, but unfortunately some things you jsut can't get- for instance, it was virtually impossible to find music in pure Anglo-Saxon with intruments from that era. So I went with music that was in Old Norse or early Middle English, late Anglo-Saxon etc. Sometimes I went with cinematic music and sometimes actual folk music. Some of the pieces are over a thousand years old, others date to the Middle Ages. Some pieces are modern, but I don't think you will notice. The modern or cinematic pieces I tried to keep to the intro and credits so only the really old sounding music was with you in the game, so you get a really powerful feeling of being in those times.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JSW1SVQQ
Waes thu Hael!
Hross