Supersymmetry (string quartet)

Supersymmetry (string quartet)
Minted on the Superchain
January 2024

Program Notes

Supersymmetry is a contemporary work for string quartet by composer Thomas Vieira. This piece is inspired by the mystery of space and time, and the unseen realities humming beneath the surface of everyday experience.

Evolving over the course of 5 movements (~9 minutes), Supersymmetry employs a striking compositional language to tell a story of science and art combined. What begins as a straightforward exercise to “count the spheres” quickly escalates, bearing away the listener through microscopic worlds of infinite complexity and hidden dimensions where nothing is what it appears.

The musical journey continues through new yet strangely familiar worlds, with powerful plucked rhythms and suspenseful, snake-like melodies adding to the mystery. Together we approach a shared revelation, until the final breakthrough occurs and we experience reality on its own terms — a breathtaking, all-encompassing oneness that touches our hearts and enlivens our minds.

Movements

1. Counting the Spheres
2. Worldsphere
3. Superpartner
4. Hint of Duality
5. Quantum Gravity

Metadata

• Title: Supersymmetry
• Instrumentation: String quartet
• Duration: ~9 minutes
• Score/Parts: Contact @neodaoist
• First Minted Onchain: January 2024
• Composed: July–December 2020
• Premiered: 13 November 2021 by the Lehner Quartet, featuring members of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

Supersymmetry
for string quartet
by Thomas Vieira