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Music Faculty - Bill Pfaff

Assistant Professor

Dr. Pfaff's compositions are characterized by a strong sense of line, clear harmonic motion, and gestures that have been described as "profound and extravagant." SUNY Plattsburgh pianist, Dr. Karen Becker, commissioned and premiered All Goodbyes Are Dreams at the American University in Cairo, Egypt in November, 2007. His composition for string quartet, In the Abode of Soundless Poetry, was premiered by the Biava String Quartet at SUNY Plattsburgh in April, 2007.

Pfaff performs his own solo compositions for electric and acoustic guitar. In November 2007, he premiered Reading the Water (electric guitar, scordatura) at the second annual SUNY Plattsburgh Guitar Festival. Guitarist Ted Mann states: "Bill's unique compositions for guitar show a deep sense of creativity and form. The 2006 composition "Quirpon" written for acoustic guitar, exhibited classical and many extended techniques that had a refreshing and challenging sound. His 2007 composition "Reading the Water," dedicated to his father, showed a knowledge of scordatura tuning, and facility on the electric guitar. In these pieces, Bill has crossed bridges between classical and many other genres to show a remarkable blend toward a new type of concert repertoire."

Dr. Pfaff has been a fellow at the Gregg Smith Singers Choral Workshop, Composer/Conductor Program at the Hartt School of Music, May in Miami Festival, June in Buffalo Festival, and the Wellesley Composers Conference. In May of 2004 he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming. He is co-founder of the electric guitar duo, Trapeze. The ensemble is dedicated to free improvisation and interdisciplinary collaboration. Trapeze has performed concerts and presented workshops in a number of venues including the Society of Composers, the College Music Society, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Teachers College of Columbia University and the WOMR radio show, "The Latest Score." His principal teachers were Martin Boykan, Yehudi Wyner, Allen Anderson, and Niel Sir.

His theoretical work, "An Analysis of Cadence Formation in the 'Introduction' to Roger Sessions' cantata, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," was published in the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of Ex Tempore (a journal of compositional and theoretical research). The research focuses on hierarchical cadence articulations in Sessions' rich, chromatic language. At the College Music Society Northeast Regional Meeting in March 2006, he presented a paper on Sessions' composition, "Form and Structure Interactions in Canons (to the memory of Igor Stravinsky)." He has presented papers on music theory pedagogy at the College Music Society and the Society of Composers. He is currently working in collaboration with Dr. Sara Doncaster on an analytical paper on Five Songs by Seymour Shifrin.

Other academic interests include Creativity and the Creative Process, Active Learning Techniques, and Distance Learning. Dr. Pfaff has worked in collaboration with Dr. Drew Waters (independent scholar), Dr. Timothy Palkovic (Theatre), Professor Lezon (Photography), Professor Reinemann (Art), and the Women's Studies Program.

Education

Teaching Areas

Recent Compositions

Bands and Ensembles

Contact Bill Pfaff

Office: Myers Fine Arts 227
Phone: (518) 564-2469
E-mail: pfaffwp@plattsburgh.edu

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