Bugle call

A French Marine plays the bugle during the Gulf War, in March 1991.

A bugle call is a short tune, originating as a military signal announcing scheduled and certain non-scheduled events on a military installation, battlefield, or ship. Historically, bugles, drums, and other loud musical instruments were used for clear communication in the noise and confusion of a battlefield. Naval bugle calls were also used to command the crew of many warships (signaling between ships being by flaghoist, semaphore, signal lamp or other means).

A defining feature of a bugle call is that it consists only of notes from a single overtone series. This is in fact a requirement if it is to be playable on a bugle or equivalently on a trumpet without moving the valves. (If a bandsman plays calls on a trumpet, for example, one particular key may be favored or even prescribed, such as: all calls to be played with the first valve down.)

Bugle calls typically indicated the change in daily routines of camp. Every duty around camp had its own bugle call, and since cavalry had horses to look after, they heard twice as many signals as regular infantry. "Boots and Saddles" was the most imperative of these signals and could be sounded without warning at any time of day or night, signaling the men to equip themselves and their mounts immediately. Bugle calls also relayed commanders' orders on the battlefield, signaling the troops to Go Forward, To the Left, To the Right, About, Rally on the Chief, Trot, Gallop, Rise up, Lay down, Commence Firing, Cease Firing, Disperse, and other specific actions.[1]

Bugle calls

Memorial Stained Glass window, Class of 1934, Royal Military College of Canada showing Officer Cadet playing the Bugle call for Last Post or The Rouse
Norman Lindsay, The trumpet calls, World War I Australian recruitment poster
Retreat
Retreat played on the bugle by a member of the United States Army Band

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This call is also used to introduce Act 3 of La damnation de Faust of Hector Berlioz.

Reveille

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Taps (in the key of B flat)
Taps as played on the bugle by the United States Army Band

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Tattoo
Tattoo played on the bugle by a member of the United States Army Band

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To the Colors
To the Colors played on the bugle by a member of the United States Army Band

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Many of the familiar calls have had words made up to fit the tune. For example, the U.S. Reveille goes:

I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up this morning;
I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up at all!
The corporal's worse than the privates,
The sergeant's worse than the corporals,
Lieutenant's worse than the sergeants,
And the captain's worst of all!
< repeat top six lines >

and the U.S. Mess Call:

Soupy, soupy, soupy, without a single bean:
Coffee, coffee, coffee, without a speck of cream:
Porky, porky, porky, without a streak of lean.[3]

and the U.S. Assembly:

There's a soldier in the grass
With a bullet up his ass
Take it out, take it out
Like a good Girl Scout!

Irving Berlin wrote a tune called, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning". In a filmed version of his musical, This Is the Army, he plays a World War I doughboy whose sergeant exhorts him with this variant of words sung to "Reveille": "Ya gotta get up, ya gotta get up, ya gotta get up this morning!" after which Berlin sang the song.

"Taps" has been used frequently in popular media, both sincerely (in connection with actual or depicted death) and humorously (as with a "killed" cartoon character). It is the title of a 1981 movie of the same name.

First call is best known for its use in thoroughbred horse racing, where it is also known as the Call to the Post. It is used to herald (or summon) the arrival of horses onto the track for a race.

Another popular use of the "Mess Call" is a crowd cheer at football or basketball games. The normal tune is played by the band, with a pause to allow the crowd to chant loudly, "Eat 'em up! Eat 'em up! Rah! Rah! Rah!"

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bugle calls.

Notes

  1. Upton, Emory (1867). A New System of Infantry Tactics. pp. (appendix).
  2. "U.S. Army Bands Bugle calls Reveille". Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  3. Sperber, Hans (1951). "Bugle Calls". 1. Indiana University Press: 167–170. JSTOR 4317288.
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