WJSV: I had no idea such a treasure existed. But to introduce the segment by saying we're assuming that you do not have 18 hours to listen to the entire broadcast is to seriously underestimate the dorkiness of your listeners. My eight-year-old daughter and I will spend this Saturday at home listening to the vintage broadcast in the background and pretending that we live in 1939. Please let others know that they too can download the mp3 files for all 18 hours for free from the Internet archive at www.archive.org.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, Host: Several of you noticed an apparent musical error. You heard Major Edward Bowes in his amateur hour in the sampler. Bowes was joined by John Tucker, the whistling wizard.</s>JOHN TUCKER: I believe, though, that I am the only person who can do whistling in counterpoint.</s>EDWARD BOWES: You mean whistle two different melodies at the same time? Can you manage a Bach fugue?</s>JOHN TUCKER: Yes, Major Bowes, strangely enough, I can.</s>JOHN TUCKER: : Wonderful job, Mr. Tucker, but not a Bach fugue. As Michael Cullin(ph) wrote to us from Berlin in Germany, it is the main theme of the 2nd Movement, the Allegretto of the Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Besides a fugue should have variations which follow it and catch up with it, which is obviously impossible to whistle as there are then two, even three melody lines.</s>JOHN TUCKER: : Mr. Cullin goes on that 2nd Movement in its entirety is a triumph of music. Just sit back, listen and enjoy a truly spiritual experience.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, Host: We thank you for your letters. If we are out of tune or on the wrong page, just send us a note. Go to npr.org, click on Contact Us at the bottom of the page.
Madeleine Brand and Robert Siegel read from listeners' letters following our broadcast of radio station WJSV from 70 years ago.