Beaming Music (2002) for organ and marimba was written at the request of a student at New York¹s Juilliard School, where Joseph Gramley runs an educational Seminar. Knowing the work was to be performed on a program with a work by the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, Muhly set out to write something in contrast to the stark severity of Xenakis¹ writing. Beaming Music is, at its heart, about small rhythmic cells transforming themselves into large, open chords. While this is most evident in the section immediately following the marimba solo 2/3 of the way through, the idea of something small blossoming into a huge chord pervades the piece. The title refers to the various metric subdivisions of the main material.