Basilica and Church Music - What a TREAT!!

One of the many cathedrals and basilicas in Europe is the Basilica St Nazaire in Carcassonne. We were looking forward to visiting Carcassonne because it has a complete ancient curtain wall and a very well restored/preserved medieval village and basilica, possibly a cathedral. The term “basilica” refers to the shape of the building and the term “cathedral” is the home church of a bishop or archbishop. Anyway, we got there, parked (not an easy task) and walked up to the moated, draw bridged and portcullesed entrance (no charge to enter) and paid our euros to climb the wall. What a view! We walked around to the internal castle, looked around in that, and headed for the basilica.
I find most ancient churches places of spiritual power, no matter the religion or state of repair. St. Nazaire has this powerful spiritual mein and is in very nice condition, beautiful stained glass windows and lots of soaring columns and great architecture. As we were walking around, we heard some a capella music begin, sort of early monk music, and I said to Sal “there goes the tape”. It was pretty but I though the idea of playing this kind of music was a bit “touristy”. We stopped in the left transept to look at something and as I turned I noticed 4 men standing in the middle singing. No tape. Live. And it sounded familiar. The countertenor was very good, and the basso profundo was to die for. Then I got it: they were singing liturgical music in Russian. This was a Russian a capella group called “Doros” (only 4 when we were there), and they were really good. Goose pimple good.
The Basilica St. Nazaire was spectacular, but the addition of real music made it an even more special visit. In retrospect, I think maybe recorded music might be ok, if not overdone, but the addition of beautiful voices, singing in the near-perfect acoustics of the basilica, was astonishing. Further research showed that this group is at the basilica every summer. Worth a visit the next time you get to Carcassonne.
Image: www. mtholyoke.edu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRjdrOBNHTQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogdplCe99ZI&feature=related