With only a few exceptions, my compositions since 2000 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 a few 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 ten series helped me direct my writing throughout my graduate studies—and generated some wonderfully heinous titles&mdash. Since 2012, four more series have emerged. 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 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 Pali
mpsest 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 musical "languages."

the Fr.#.a… series
These pieces are collections of short, fragmentary compositions that were written in one sitting like journal entries when I was on vacation or in other special locations and/or dates.

the Fanfare series
Tiny pieces written to open concerts in various significant circumstances such as the World/Inferno Friendship Society's Hallowmas night, or the resurrection of the 11tet.

the f(f(x)) series
My most complexly-structured series yet, f(f(x)) pieces are fractally designed in that the larger piece structure contains multiple smaller compositions that are at least theoretically separable from the larger set.

POST-2012

the pentecost series
In a way, these pieces are kind of the opposite of the BABEL pieces, in that, although different musical "languages" are still a crucial part of the music, the sections ultimately coalesce into a single idea rather than splitting off into relative chaos.

the GREEN_BLUE_BLUE series
These pieces all have titles with the same three different colors, as shown above. They are in three sections that each present three ideas filtered through different concepts.

the hyperoperator series
These pieces are inspired by the mathematical concept of the "hyperoperation sequence" wherein new operations are defined recursively. Each title is just a number of up-arrows, and the sections either find complexity from a simple idea, or tame complexity by exposing an underlying simplicity.

the 2n-ion series
The works in this series are inspired by the so-called "Hypercomplex" numbers. Each piece is named by a subset of these numbers, and each one allows a base idea to proliferate to the point of inchoherence.