Someone recently showed me an amazing work by the Dutch composer, Jacob ter Veldhuis, called Paradiso. It's an oratorio sort of based on Dante's Divine Comedy (with the tenor and soprano soloists standing in for the author and Beatrice) that uses all sorts of samples from things that run the gamut between holy roller sermons to astronaut communications from actual moon landings as well as the infamous fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally. JTV takes all this stuff and blends it into a work of incredible beauty, intimacy and immediacy.
Where has this work been all my life? Seriously. When something like this is out there it is everyone's responsibility to lead me to it like a horse to water. I feel foolish that Paradiso had been "waiting for me" since 2001 and I had been blissfully unaware and not in on the proverbial secret. It is so good.
Here's a YouTube clip he's posted of the fifth movement, "Heaven on Earth." The work has a video component as well so you get to watch something pretty whilst you listen.
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