The Mark Steyn Club was born twenty-four months ago in May 2017, which means we are now two - and in the midst of anniversary observances. One of the most popular features these last couple of years 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 serialization of each story.
So here, after many requests, is a sampler of the accompanying melodies from 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 wrote our series 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 Tales for Our Time, we hope this will be a reminder of a rollicking first two 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 Mark Steyn Club member, we hope you'll enjoy this taste of one of the Club's favorite features.
You can also enjoy our other, very different birthday music special, in which Mark talks to Chuck Berry, Julio Iglesias, Men At Work and other pop stars about some of the not quite biggest hits of all time, plus we have an encore presentation of last year's Tales for Our Time sampler. Our latest Tale can be found here, and our third season starts next week.
Oh, and please join Mark tomorrow for more music, but live and on video.
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 two 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 in this 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.
~For more Steyn Club second anniversary celebrations, please see:
The Mark Steyn Show
with George Papadopoulos
On the Town
Non-Stop Nearly Number Ones
Clubland Q&A
Universal Exports is Hiring
Steyn's Song of the Week
Tea for Two
Tales for Our Time
The Island of Dr Moreau
A Clubman's Notes
Now We Are Two
