H.L. Mencken visited for the Bach choir: "I once came so near going dry in Pennsylvania, and in the very midst of a huge fleet of illicit breweries, that the m

H.L. Mencken visited for the Bach choir: "I once came so near going dry in Pennsylvania, and in the very midst of a huge fleet of illicit breweries, that the memory of it still makes me shiver. This was at Bethlehem in the Lehigh Valley, in 1924. I had gone to the place with my publisher, Alfred Knopf, to hear the celebrated Bach Choir, and we were astounded after the first day's sessions to discover that not a drop of malt liquor was to be had in the local pubs. This seemed strange and unfriendly, for it is well known to every musicologist that the divine music of old Johann Sebastian cannot be digested without the aid of its natural solvent." (he found his beer, behind closed doors ...)