Wow

That's just about all I can say. We all get tired of these Internet experiments and the lunatics posting them -- you know, "Man ages 12 years in 2 minutes" -- but this experiment is truly awe-inspiring.

To not only have pulled it off but to have made it staggeringly beautiful . . . well, a tip of the hat goes out to this guy.

First, he composes a chorale for a choir. Then he videos himself conducting it, along with the sheet music for the various parts.

Then, more than 4,000 people -- after watching this video I'd have to call them singers -- record their parts in front of their webcam, then send in the results. The composer then assembles all those parts into one work and posts the result online. And the result is beyond eerie. It's absolutely mind-blowing.

It brings to mind that old saw "If everyone in China jumped up and down at the same time . . ."

My God, can you imagine the possibilities of posting online Beethoven's Fifth with an amazing conductor conducting, plus the sheet music, then inviting the world's musicians (pros, I mean -- you'd have amateurs but they could literally be weeded out) to record their performances and then posting 5,000 musicians playing it?

Who the hell thinks stuff like this up? But wait, who the hell thinks this stuff up, and then SEES IT THROUGH?

It's tempting to call this guy a grandstander and the result bordering on cheesy, but I beg to differ. I'm humbly, officially, blown away.