To Tame the Perilous Skies

Performed by the US Air Force Tactical Command Band, composed by David R. Holsinger, this version was released on the CD Fireworks
To Tame the Perilous Skies was commissioned by the 564th Tactical Air Command Band, United States Air Force, located in Virginia, and received its premiere performance in the fall of 1990. Although it leaves the storyline completely to the listener's imagination, "Perilous Skies" was conceived as a programmatic work literally depicting two opposing forces colliding in battle. The elongated canonic introduction presents a six-pitch intervallic display that is used throughout the composition, both as an intact melodic statement and a fragmented germative device, to depict every extra-musical element from serenity to air war to triumphal deliverance. Little did Holsinger realize the prophetic nature of the work, when at the time of its premiere the United Nations forces were assembling in the Persian Gulf; it was only a few months later that the world watched as modern technological air power "tamed the perilous skies" over Iraq and Kuwait. Then, in retrospect, this work is dedicated not only to the exceptional men and women of the Tactical Air Command, but to the spirit of the modern military aviator, taming the perilous skies that all men might live free of tyranny and oppression.