Commissioned by several South Carolina universities to write a “barnburner” for wind symphony, the composer considered George Gershwin’s incorporation of jazz elements into the repertoire of orchestral music and Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. He noted that the “seventh” was the musical interval that Rhapsody in Blue kept so prominent and based this entire composition on sevens. Every part of this piece has a connection to that number, such as the number of notes in the phrase, time signature, the seventh-step chord that a phrase is based upon, etc.

Samuel R. Hazo (b. 1966) received his bachelors and masters degrees from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. He has taught music at every grade level from kindergarten through university. He has composed original scores for television, radio and the stage. He serves as a guest conductor, a clinician for Hal Leonard Corporation, and is sponsored by Sibelius Music Software.