Fission

Ludwig Göransson's "Fission" from the Oppenheimer score is the sound of a mind working at the edge of what the mind can contain. Built primarily from strings playing techniques that skirt the edge of dissonance without fully committing, the piece captures the peculiar intellectual ecstasy of theoretical physics — the beauty of an equation before you understand what it means in physical reality. Göransson worked closely with Nolan to develop a score that could represent both the interior life of scientific thought and the horror of its application, and "Fission" sits squarely in the first category. The tempo is driving but not aggressive — propulsive in the way thought itself becomes propulsive when a solution is approaching. There are no electronics here; everything is acoustic, which was a deliberate choice that makes the music feel more human even as the subject matter approaches the inhuman. The strings' extended techniques produce timbres that sound almost synthesized, which is its own kind of thematic statement. It is excellent music for working on problems that require both rigor and imagination — the piece thinks alongside you.