With only a few exceptions, my compositions during the last decade have belonged to one or more abstract series. Each series is a conceptual (and often formal) framework which helps me shape a new piece and create connections between pieces. It all started with (al-Gharaniq I)—the last piece I wrote at the University of Oklahoma—which is an electronic work exploring a conceptual idea I enjoyed in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Even before I completed the piece, I had the sense that it was a conceptual idea I would want to explore again, so I added the roman numeral I. There have only been two other pieces in this al-Gharaniq series thus far, but the idea of writing a multiple piece series has itself become a meta-framework that helped pull me out of a "Great Sleep"-like block I fell into after moving to New York City. These seven series have helped me direct my writing throughout my graduate studies—and generated some wonderfully heinous titles—and if you’d like to know more about any of them, just follow the links below:

the al-Gharaniq series

Inspired by The Satanic Verses these pieces for any instrumentation are structured so that each section is primarily built out of a minor or implicit element in the preceding section.

the PortRait series

These are generally solo pieces and always have electronic accompaniment.

the Fracture series

The series that inspired the title for the new Anti-Social Music record featuring my music: Fracture: The Music of Pat Muchmore. In these pieces the structure continually breaks and snaps between different genres and styles like a radio constantly changing stations.

the brokenAphorism series

Originally conceived as very short Fracture pieces, these pieces are usually grouped as inter-related movements of larger collections and feature visually complex scores inspired by George Crumb.

the Palimpsest series

The series that inspired my tattoo, these pieces are always in two movements that explore juxtaposition in different ways. (It’s less cryptic than that sounds, but I’m trying to make these short)

the Rydberg series

[To any atomic physicists out there – get it?] These pieces are inspired by a truly strange atomic state which hovers between classical and quantum mechanics.

the BABEL series

Sporting the most exotic titles, these pieces are in five sections or movements, each of which explores different "languages."