St Mary's of the Angels

I went to Mass there the other day. Which is probably the first time I have gone to church for any reason other than to make my mother happy in the last 16 years. I went for the plainsong, a new interest, but that is not the only reason. The rest is an odd mixure of my reading on the Reformation and heresy and nostalgia (after all the church was a huge part of my culture and idenity while I was growing up). I think that the debate about it being chic to be Catholic on Pop Politics and the reproductions of 3 Annunciations on the wall next to my computer may have contributed too.
Still going back to the plainsong and the Reformation, I just don't understand why the chanting had to go. It is the best bit. Perhaps that is just me approaching it from an aesthetic rather than religious POV, but I believe that religious experience should have its aesthetic component. I'd say that a big chunk of the history of art, architecture and music agrees with me there.
Anyway I am taking a break from history and religion for a while, (in my reading, I am listening to Lauds for the feast of St Columba right now). I am reading a biography of Antonio Gramsci.
Although how much of a break that really is depends somewhat on the definition of religion.