Fellow posters, don't hate me for this, but please stop using the midi as a default audio format for NES, SNES and Game Boy(I think), they have their own format.
Sorry, I just had to get out of my chest.

Back on topic, I see some gamers here wants a orchestra-style Zelda music, while others said it doesn't need to. Those are 2 kinds in the same quality right there(somehow it feels like quantity to me, but I don't want to debate). But there is also a quality of how the music is composed (you know, how it's string together, set of tone, etc) and I find the latter to be more important, how well the quality of the composition is!
And as I said before, it doesn't matter if it's orchestraded or not, it just has to have a catchy tune (I can't say anything for Phantom Hourglass, 'cause I haven't played it)!
Speaking of catchy tune I noticed some of you said that you love the memorable ol'skool zelda theme and as someone suggested it, love it so much to the point that you can't find any other zelda music (subsuquently new/other ones) as memorable as that one, even though they are awesome in there own rights.
As for me, I like just about all the melodies from all the Zelda games I have played, even the ones that I haven't yet... But I think I would still leaned towards the NSF format, simple yet straightforward!

Ocarina of Time had a ton of memorable songs. Majora's Mask too. The bass player in my band is learning the bass riff from the zora band (original zelda dungeon theme)

As for the new zelda, its all going to be hiphop by 50 cent and jay-z to accommodate to the "core" crowd ;)

I'm loving all this music in this thread.

You are exactly right.

One of the (few) main reasons my brother and I didn't like Twilight Princess was because there was no focus on a musical instrument. Music can turn good games into crap and mediocre games into memorable enjoyment.

OOT had awesome music, so to go from Ocarina with 12 (IDK how many anymore) songs, to TP without any, it was sad.

On the topic of music styles, at GDC a few years back (07), the musicians behind some of the classic nintendo games (super mario, zelda, etc) talked about the resurgence of MIDI to replace the static, audio recorded themes. Instead, using high end synth samples, the MIDI will be able to tell what the player's condition is (low health, time running out, etc) and choose the 4 to 8 bar theme to play, and add and drop instruments in to make variations.

This is part of what you are discussing, as music used to be whole chunks of big orchestral recordings. Now everything is done in 4-8 bar bits of MIDI, using a range of high quality synth samples. While this can still produce great music, it takes more engineering than musical composing, so it has to be done right to make sense. If you've ever created audio loops in a sound program, you know how this is - if your loop segment isnt perfect, it sounds like a loop. If you have it spot on, it sounds like one continuous performance

 I don't have much expectations for the soundtrack to SPIRIT TRACKS, since that's basically a continuation of PH.  I do, however, expect the next ZELDA Wii entry to be as good as, if not better, TP, OoT, MM, and ALTTP.  I don't have such ridiculously high standards like some of the posters here do.

I somewhat agree with the OP. The older Zeldas had more and more memorable songs. Still, the recent Zelda games have had some great songs as well, no question about that. But yeah, after the old classics, it's hard not to feel the series could use some good, fresh, new, memorable and catchy tunes. I've been feeling this way since WW.

I thought they did some good things with Twilight Princess' music. In particular, I like how they had a habit of playing the same tune, but using different instruments to change the overall feel entirely (like how the music only uses clarinets while on Hyrule Field on foot, but trumpets kick in once you get on Epona, or how the wolf training sessions' song is the same as the slingshot training, but with drums and brasswind in the place of woodwind and string instruments). As well, I liked what they did with the Hyrule Castle music, taking the original version's melody and then slowly corrupting it in parts with Ganondorf's theme as you made your way up, until you reach him and the Castle theme has been completely replaced by Ganondorf's. It's really easy to miss if you're not paying attention to the music.

@ Kenny

Now that's what I call "experimental:/:instrumetal at it's best!" And it pays-off!