by Johannes Brahms, Edward Elgar, César Franck, Mikhail Glinka, André Grétry, Jenő Huszka, Albert Ketèlbey, Gustav Mahler, Modest Mussorgsky and Carl Nielsen
Welcome to a special presentation in lieu of our regular Sunday Song of the Week.
The Mark Steyn Club was born ninety-six months ago in May 2017, which means that on Tuesday we will turn eight years old. One of the most popular features this last near-decade has been our series of monthly audio adventures, Tales for Our Time. And one of the most popular features of Tales for Our Time has been the music Mark chooses to accompany his serialisation of each story.
So here, after many requests, is a sampler of the accompanying melodies for some of our tales: Mark plays ninety minutes of great works by composers from all over the map, starting with Sir Edward Elgar, the man who gave our series its theme tune. After that comes a triumphal march from a Russo-Turkish war, the big song from a Hungarian operetta about England's Prince Bob and the Cockney serving wench he loves, and the music Mark picked out for Jekyll and Hyde, The Time Machine, The Scarlet Pimpernel and many more, all performed by some of the world's great orchestras under the batons of Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti and more. And along the way Mark explains how he goes about picking out these tunes for our tales.
To hear this Tales for Our Time music sampler, simply click above. If you're a devoted follower of our Tales, we hope this will be a reminder of a rollicking first eight years. If you're a Mark Steyn Club member who's missed one or two of our tales, we hope it will whet your appetite to take a prowl around the archive. And, if you're not a Steyn Clubber, we hope you'll enjoy this taste of one of the Club's favourite features.
Our current Tale can be found here, and continues tonight at 7pm North American Eastern/midnight British Summer Time.
The crucial element of The Mark Steyn Club is the members - and we're very appreciative of all those who signed up in that first month eight Mays ago who have been so eager to re-subscribe in recent days, and sent along their best wishes, too. Ian from Toronto:
Loving the site....musical knowledge superb. Hoping you stay out of the woods forever.
We do too, Ian. First Month Founding Member David Gray writes:
Crazy about all the stuff you send us Mark... The lady that does the intro is so smooth! The Elgar is perfect... Thanks for identifying it for the few barbarians that didn't know any Elgar except for what was played at HS grad. A rainy afternoon approaches here on the edge of a real swamp in Louisiana...good time to kick back and soak up some Mark......
There's a double-dose of Elgar above, David. We thank all our re-subscribers, but we always like to have new members too, and we've been gratified by the number who've chosen to join a little late as we approach anniversary season - among them Adele from Maryland:
On your side. And much admiration for your incredible talent. Enjoy the obits.
Thank you, Adele. Very much appreciated. For more information on The Mark Steyn Club, see here. And, if you have a friend of literary bent who might enjoy our monthly audio adventures, don't forget our special gift membership.
