It’s Memorial Day, and that explains the momentary explosion of stories about the origin of Taps. Embedded in many of those accounts is the stuff of myths and legends. Here is a reprise of the brief history of taps that I posted last summer:<\/p>\n
It is perhaps the most famous of all bugle calls, and is comprised of just 24 notes. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know for sure when I first heard that haunting melody. I keep thinking that it was probably at summer camp signaling \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclights out\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the original purpose of the call \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or perhaps in an old war movie soundtrack, playing as darkness enveloped the barracks of the good guys. Fond memories aside, my first exposure was most likely while watching television coverage of John F. Kennedy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funeral \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I was barely eight years old. Over the last forty years, the American public has come to know Taps all too well. For many days following 9\/11 we heard it several times a day, and now as soldiers and civilians in all corners of the world die at terrorist hands in political and religious wars, I only hope that we never become inured to the sadness that Taps evokes.<\/p>\n
Taps, as we know it today, was first sounded in July of 1862 for the Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, under the command of Union General Daniel Butterfield. Its origins are much disputed, and the truth is confounded by verbal accounts that have grown into myth. Master Sgt. Jari A. Villanueva, a longstanding member of the United States Air Force Band and respected bugle historian, traces today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Taps back to an earlier version of the call Tattoo used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to signal troops to prepare them for bedtime roll call.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In his comprehensive essay <\/a><\/strong>that covers the history and the mythology of Taps, Villanueva writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In the interest of historical accuracy, it should be noted that it is not General Butterfield who composed Taps, rather that he revised an earlier call into the present day bugle call we know as Taps.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Other stories of Taps\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 origin include a Union Army father finding the musical notes on a slip of paper in the pocket of a dead Confederate soldier\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6his own son. Villanueva has traced this tall tale back to a Ripley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Believe It Or Not\u00e2\u20ac\u009d story that was later spread by re-telling in an Ann Landers or Dear Abby column.<\/p>\n
Villaneuva also explains the circumstances under which Taps was first used at a military funeral during the Peninsular Campaign in 1862. Captain Tidball, worried that a loud gun volley would alert the enemy nearby, ordered Taps to be played at the burial of a fallen soldier. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The custom, thus originated, was taken up throughout the Army of the Potomac, and finally confirmed by orders.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Taps can be heard as many as thirty times a day at Arlington National Cemetery. Villanueva, himself a bugler, says that this duty \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is the military musician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s equivalent of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcplaying Carnegie Hall.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Taps should be played by a lone bugler,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel, Commander and Conductor of the United States Air Force Band from 1964 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1985. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some have tried to harmonize it, but it destroys the simplistic beauty of the lone bugler. The most heart tugging time to hear it is at Arlington Cemetery when a veteran is buried and there are no family members present, just the Chaplin, the honor guard and the pallbearers. To hear taps in that setting is gut-wrenching.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Music is a powerful communicator.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s Memorial Day, and that explains the momentary explosion of stories about the origin of Taps. Embedded in many of those accounts is the stuff of myths and legends. Here is a reprise of the brief history of taps that I posted last summer: It is perhaps the most famous of all bugle calls, and … Continue reading “Taps Reprise”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-timely-thoughts","category-this-n-that"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}