The Background:
The CBC Classical Radio show, Music and Company with host Tom Allen, is asking it's listeners for postcards about what they did with their summers. For fun, (and because Tom is a little bit weird,) he "dredged up some postcards from the CBC archives" from such great names as Brahms, Mahler and Mozart... in which the long dead composers tell about what they did with their summer, (some hundred years ago.)

I decided that I could be at LEAST as silly as this Tom person, so I sent them a postcard today. But I had so much to write on it, (and it was in the "old English" calligraphy) that I had no room for the stamp, full address, and "AirMail" sticker. I sent it then, with a cover letter, (also a postcard,) in an envelope. Here they both are:

***On a Postcard of the Lüneburg Heath***
Dear Music and Company,

I am living in Lüneburg, and singing in the choir of Saint Michaelis church. It was behind the housing of an organ pipe that I found the other post card, seemingly addressed to you. This summer I went home to Vancouver Island, taking my German Fiancee with me to introduce her to my family, friends, landscape and culture. So I spent my time enjoying life... and ignoring the Max Reger *Vater Unser* score in my suitcase which I should have been learning.

I love listening to your show (in my afternoons.)

Sincerely, Matthew Sly.

PS: Three cheers for Streaming Radio!

***On a postcard of St. Michaelis Church***
Lüneburg 1701
Dear Tom

I'm starting my second year of studies and singing in Michaeliskirche. I still enjoy listening to Herr Böhm play the Organ when ever the chance arises. Much more exciting however was hearing Herr Reinken in Hamburg. It took half a day to walk there, (over the heath in charming bloom,) but the Music was well worth it. I could go on and on about the Organ in St. Catharinen, if I only had enough space to.

Wish you were here, drinking in Kronen-Brauerei with -
your old friend-

Joe S. Bach
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To: Tom Allan
Great Lake Ontario
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(Past New France)

Now, for those of you who don't want to do the history research... Johan Sebastian Bach was orphaned at 10 years old. At 15 (1700) he moved to the large city of Lüneburg, where he sang soprano for the church choir in return for room, board, small allowance, and his schooling. He may or may not have met an spoken with the Lüneburg Organist Georg Böhm, but was pretty clearly influenced by him. In the Summer of 1701 he walked to Hamburg and listened to concerts there. Of particular interest was Jan Adams Reincken, who some consider to be a mentor for Bach. And he was ever so impressed with the Organ he heard in Hamburg, at St. Catherine's. There was one side note about how Bach loved wine and beer his whole life, so I just figured that he must have gone to the Crown-Brewery, which was founded in Lüneburg over two hundred years before Bach came here, and which is still around today.

Oh, and in 1701 there was no Toronto, only a number of explorers here and there on the great lakes. There wasn't even a clear colony on the lakes yet, which is why I put it as "Somewhere past New France."

I wonder if my Bach postcard will get read on the air... If it arrives there soon enough at all.