Reverberation

I am continuing to read the book about the brain and music. His description of the effects of reverb reminded me of a concert in Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

I am very familiar with Fauré's Requiem, but was completely unprepared for the transformation it underwent with the long reverberation of Grace Cathedral. Now Gabriel Fauré worked as an organist in cathedrals in Paris and must have known exactly what would happen. He knew that the tones dying away from the previous chord would increase the beauty of the succeeding chord. How would you know this if you didn't experience it first hand?

With Bach this doesn't happen. The reverberation just obscures the counterpoint.