Seven Steps Ahead Hn Tb Pn - Jimmy Kachulis

Seven Steps Ahead – imagines the fun a large group of samba dancers will have trying to dance the traditional Brazilian samba in an uneven rhythm. It blends a surging samba rhythm from central Brazil, and a modern jazz vocabulary, with Balkan and Indian rhythmic conceptions. The opening fanfare-like theme in fourths, used melodically, harmonically, and tonally for modulations, is the unifying interval throughout the piece. The opening theme contrasts with a more song-like second theme. Each theme is developed in the searching, unresolved, development section thorough various tonal centers, until the tension is resolved when they return in their original keys. Over the dynamic 7/4 Brazilian/Balkan rhythm, the strings superimpose canons in 3/4 and 2/, all in a modified Sonata rondo form.