“Every person can recognize the tune within the first three notes. When you hear it, it just brings you back immediately to every time before that you’ve heard that sound.” –Jari Villanueva
Jack Bumann, a high school senior in Woodhull, Illinois, found a legal way to get out of his classes; and to learn respect for veterans who risked all for him.
Bumann, a talented trumpet player, was getting requests to play taps at veterans’ funerals when a live bugler couldn’t be found.
On January 1, 2017, Illinois joined four other states (Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin and West Virginia) that allow qualified musicians to miss class to play taps at a veteran’s funeral.
Bumann is a member of the Youth Trumpet and Taps Corps, an organization founded by Katie Pryor, an Oklahoma high school trumpet player, that makes similar horn players aware of the need for their talents at veterans’ services. Aspirants must pass an audition to be allowed to play these notes to honor a service member.
Why? Over a half a million veterans die every year. They are deserving of the recognition of their service to their country. In 2000, federal legislation was enacted to ensure that all honorably discharged veterans receive military honors. This law mandated that at least two members of the military would be present to fold and present the flag of our country, and to mechanically play taps: first through a CD and shortly thereafter, an implanted device into a bugle that would play a recording of taps. This device was made available to all veterans’ posts that offered honors at veterans’ funerals. The bugle also played “reveille” for other post ceremonies.
This was a big relief to funeral homes and Veterans of Foreign War or American Legion Posts who were providing honors at comrades’ burials.
However, the mechanical reproduction of taps was not satisfactory to all of the deceased veterans’ family members. The actual playing of this last tribute was important. This sent funeral homes and veterans’ posts scrambling to find musicians to play this salute.
“Any way we can make this experience more meaningful for the grieving family, more respectful for the veteran, is a good thing,” Illinois State Rep. Don Moffit (D-Gilson), sponsor of the bill, told the Chicago Tribune.
Ami Neiberger-Miller remembered her brother Christopher’s military funeral to the Huffington Post. Her brother was killed by an IED while on patrol in Baghdad. “It was relatively short. There were prayers, volleys were fired and the service members folded the flag and presented it to the family. The family received the flag and there was taps. It lasted less than a minute, but those notes were incredibly powerful. It went to the core of us and stuck with us.”
There are some families that will not only criticize the mechanical rendition of taps, but will also condemn a trumpet over the purity of a bugle. This part of a veteran’s funeral honors has that much meaning.
Taps has a long and often misquoted history. I prefer the US Department of Veterans Affairs version of its origin. The name “taps” comes from the words “tap toe.” This related to the French bugle signal “tattoo,” which signaled soldiers to cease their drinking and get to their posts. “Tap toe” meant shut the tap of the keg.
Civil War General Daniel Adams Butterfield was not pleased with the day’s end bugle call, “L’extinction des feuxs” (basically, “lights out”). It was too long. After hearing “Tap toe,” he sat with brigade bugler Oliver W. Norton and came up with the call. They played it at day’s end and it became popular with other brigades. The Confederate buglers even adopted the tune.
In 1874, it became the official “taps.”
When a cannoneer died in battle, Union Captain John Tidball ordered it played at his burial rather than the three-volley rifle salute (he didn’t want to reveal their location). General Stonewall Jackson had taps played at his funeral, beginning a tradition. In 1891, taps was considered a part of a military funeral ceremony.
It is also played at the lowering of the flag and to signal “lights out” at days end.
There is a well circulated myth about a Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe, who supposedly heard the moaning of a wounded soldier. When he located him, he saw that it was his son, a member of the confederate infantry. He could bury his son, but without the usual military fare, as the son was of the enemy. He supposedly found a scrap of paper in his son’s pocket containing 24 notes. He asked the bugler to play at the son’s burial. This was not the true story of taps.
Tom Day was one of those who felt a live bugler was not too much to ask for at a veteran’s final honors.
A former Marine, he played taps at a military funeral at age 10. He knew the military history of the bugle and felt it needed to be played live for any veteran. He formed Bugles Across America; a network of bugle players to offer a bugler to play those consecrated notes with meaning and respect, live, at the final honors of any honorably discharged veteran.
His organization is now a 501(c) 3 to accept donations for the cost of networking the buglers and other appropriate horn players across the country, veterans and civilians alike. There are no dues. They must pass an audition to be sure they give the proper presentation of this tribute (www.buglesacrossamerica.org).
Jari Villanueva established Tapsbuglers with a similar mission. A retired United States Air Force Band member in Washington, DC, he spent 23 years as a bugler at Arlington National Cemetery. He studies and writes about the historic tune and its place in the nation’s history. Villanueva serves as the president of the board for the Patriot Brass Ensemble, a group dedicated to providing music for veterans. http://patriotbrass.org/ and an advisory member to Taps For Veterans, a group dedicated to helping find live buglers for military funerals. www.TapsForVeterans.org. This website gives other resources for buglers and musicians to continue this historic and irreplaceable part of a salute to a veteran.
There are no official words for these few notes, however these are the ones most accepted to accompany the tune:
Fading light dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar drawing nigh – Falls the night.
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
Then good night, peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright;
God is near, do not fear – Friend, good night.
Regardless of its mixed history and the myths that accompany it, we know it is a deserved honor, one of deep appreciation for their service. God bless all who deserve its rendering.
“There is no amount of money or technology that can buy the feeling you get playing taps for a family, the last they are seeing their loved one and veteran. It’s something sacred to us and to them. It brings tears. We call it the hardest 24 notes.” –Tom Day