Basilica

Mass was fun this morning at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It's a huge place! The priest was a bit swishy, but he had a great voice and chanted on key. They have an excellent organist, who was, alas, cursed to be stationed in a balcony at the back of the enormous basilica, but I noticed he had a TV monitor so he could see what was going on behind him. The choir was okay, but surprisingly small....only fourteen voices, including the female cantor. The choir was stationed in chairs behind the main altar in the large sanctuary space, and I was a bit chagrined to notice they mike the choir. I don't know if it is necessary in that large space or not, but it had the unfortunate effect of allowing some of the individual voices to stick out and they lost the choral balance and blend I think they would have had with natural acoustics. There's about a four or five second decay time for sound in that space, so I would have thought they'd have reveled in the opportunity to use it, especially since the choir sang a capella almost all the time.