As I was doing research for this trip to Barcelona, I read somewhere that there were three churches which had notable organs. Today we attended masses in those three churches, including the Barcelona Cathedral at 10:30 am, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi at 12:00 pm and the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar at 7:30 pm. By far, the most elaborate was at the Cathedral, which had an excellent choir which sang the parts of the Ordinary alternating with the fabulous cantor throughout. The ushers passed out the congregational part and guess what it was based on: Orbis factor (!) a mass they sang during Lent back home at St. Mark’s!

The organist played Bach’s “Christ lag in Todesbanden” at least twice: once during the prelude, where the second half was repeated as well as the first half; and at the offertory. I mentioned that the cantor was fabulous — he had a beautiful voice and conducted sensitively as he sang.

And talk about “clouds of incense” ! Too bad I couldn’t take a picture of it, because it was definitely over the top in terms of quantity of smoke.

We had to leave during communion in order to make the 12:00 service at the Basilica Santa Maria del Pi which was definitely “low church.” There wasn’t even a processional cross and servers wore street clothes rather than vestments. There was no choir but only a cantor.

Before I get to the third church (because that’s how our day went), we took a guided tour of Palau de la Musica, a private concert venue which was built specifically to house choral groups. That’s why, when you see the stage, there are built-in choral risers as you can see below.

There was some colorful stained glass in the building, with lots of emphasis on elements in nature, such as flowers and trees. This concert venue was simply spectacular, although our guide said the acoustics were improving from the original installation.

We then went on a two-hour hop on, hop off bus tour of Barcelona, and here are some of the highlights:

The last stop was at Antonio Gaudi’s most famous church building, La Sagrada Familia where I took photos only of the exterior, since we’ll be taking a tour of the interior tomorrow.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this American restaurant here in Spain! What an outrage!

The last church service of the day was at the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, my favorite organ of the day. The service opened with the hymn, LOBE DEN HERREN, sung to Spanish words, with a woman cantor. I was so happy to hear Spanish in the service, since up to now we’ve only heard Catalan. Finally, I can understand almost everything! The service ended with “The strife is o’er”, sung in Spanish, of course, but with extra Alleluia choruses between the verses.

You can imagine what my feet must feel like after such a big day! Look at this! Yowsers!