Taps

The trumpet signal Taps (see Taps) is an integral part of military mourning and funeral ceremonies in the USA. The 24-note signal call, which lasts just under a minute, gains its solemn character from the way it is performed. Due to its frequent use in movies and television films dealing with the American military, Taps is also well known internationally. Normally the piece is intoned by a solo musician on the trumpet, but the use of bagpipes is also quite common.

Taps originated during the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1862 it was created under the auspices of the US Northern States General Daniel Adams Butterfield and his bugler Oliver Willcox Norton as a signal for the night's rest, i.e. as a taps signal. By that same year, however, Taps was being played at funeral services for fallen U.S. soldiers and retained that role. In 1891 Taps was officially established as the signal call at military funeral services in the service regulations of the US armed forces.

Taps is also sung as a multi-strophic song, for example in the evenings at scouts, where the first and best known verse is:

Day is done, gone the sun, From the lake, from the hills, from the sky, All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

Because of the simple harmonic and melodic structure (a fourth upwards in the upbeat, then completing the notes of a broken major chord upwards), the piece was taken up and further processed by pop music early on. The first six notes are identical, followed by harmonically similar sequences in the piece Il Silenzio, but without plagiarizing the original.

At the funeral of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery, the trumpeter Keith Clark, due to the cold November weather and the salutes fired behind him for television pictures, made a sighing sound on the sixth note, which was taken by many as a poignant expression of grief.