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- This article is about the musical piece. For other uses, see Taps (disambiguation).
Taps is a famous musical piece, sounded by the U.S. military during flag ceremonies and funerals, generally on bugle or trumpet. The tune is also sometimes known as "Butterfield's Lullaby", or by the lyrics of its second verse, "Day is Done".
The bugle call was composed by the Union Army Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield, an American Civil War general who commanded the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division in the V Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac.
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Quotations
General Harlan Bache: Was I scared! I must have lost fifty pounds, all of it brown.
Honor doesn't count for shit when you're looking at a dead little boy.
I don't ever want to see what I just saw out there. We're soldiers!
about firing his assault rifle at the townies and cops, to facilitate their escape I saw my duty, and I did it.
Firing machine gun It's beautiful, man!
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the musical piece. For other uses, see Taps (disambiguation).
Taps is a famous musical piece, sounded by the U.S. military during flag ceremonies and funerals, generally on bugle or trumpet. The tune is also sometimes known as "Butterfield's Lullaby", or by the lyrics of its second verse, "Day is Done".
The bugle call was composed by the Union Army Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield, an American Civil War general who commanded the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division in the V Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Butterfield wrote the tune at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in July 1862. Taps also replaced "Tattoo", the French bugle call to signal "lights out." Butterfield's bugler, Oliver W. Norton, of Erie, Pennsylvania, was the first to sound the new call. Within months, Taps was used by both Union and Confederate forces. Villanueva states that the tune is actually a variation of an earlier bugle call known as the Scott Tattoo which was used in the U.S. from 1835 until 1860.
Taps concludes many military funerals conducted with honors at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as hundreds of others around the United States. The tune is also sounded at many memorial services in Arlington's Memorial Amphitheater and at gravesites throughout the cemetery.
Taps is sounded during each of the 2,500 military wreath ceremonies conducted at the Tomb of the Unknowns every year, including the ones held on Memorial Day. The ceremonies are viewed by many people, including veterans, school groups, and foreign officials. Taps is also sounded nightly at 9 PM (2100 hrs) in military installations at non-deployed locations to indicate that it is "lights out." When Taps is sounded at a funeral, it is customary to salute if in uniform, or to place the right hand over the heart if out of uniform.
Lyrics
The original version was purely instrumental, but there have been several later lyrics added. The first is shown below:
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 lakes, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest;
God is nigh.
Then goodnight, peaceful night;
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright.
God is near, do not fear,
Friend, goodnight.
The other popular version, penned and harmonized by famed composer Josef Pasternack, is:
Love, sweet dreams!
Lo, the beams of the light Fairy moon kissed the streams,
Love, Goodnight!
Ah so soon!
Peaceful dreams!
Another set of lyrics, used in a recording made by John Wayne about song, go like this:
Fading light
Falling night
Trumpet call, as the sun, sinks in flight
Sleep in peace, comrades dear,
God is near.
Ukrainian Organizations, such as the scouting organization "Plast" and the Ukrainian Youth Association "UAYA" sing a song as a nightly prayer (after campfires and other significant gatherings or funerals) by the same melody of Taps called "Night has Come" (Ukrainian: ??? ??? ???)
Often times, after the campfire or gathering the participants cross and hold hands throughout the prayer. When the final verse is sung a "spark" is sent by the leader by squeezing the hand of the person next to him/her and that person squeezing the next person's hand until the "spark" has reached the first person. The person and everyone else proclaims "Goodnight!" There have been variations on the spark such as the wave or kissing the cheek instead of squeezing the hand. Traditionally, this is the last song sung of the day.
Translation:
Night has come, above our heads
The bright sun has long gone
Sleep peacefully, without trouble
God is here, God is here, God is here
(humming melody of second verse)
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight!'
Transliteration:
Nich vzhe yde, za verkhom
Yasne sonce davno vzhe zajshlo
Tykho spy, bez tryvoh
Tut ye Boh, tut ye Boh, tut ye Boh
Mmmm...
Dobranich, dobranich, dobranich!
Cyrillic Text:
??? ??? ???, ?? ??????
???? ????? ????? ??? ??????
???? ???, ??? ??????
??? ? ???, ??? ? ???, ??? ? ???
????…
????????, ????????, ????????!
Music
The melody of "Taps" is composed entirely from the written notes of the C Major triad (i.e. C, E, and G). This makes it appropriate for sounding on the bugle or the C Major diatonic harmonica, since one only needs to play blow notes.
The dual connection of "Taps" with death and with extinguishing lights is reinforced by the modern expression, "lights out," often used as a slang expression for actual death, or more often for symbolic "death," such as a sports team's loss in a game or tournament.
Origins
According to Naval Ceremonies, Customs, and Traditions by William P. Mack and Royal W. Connell issued to each Plebe at the United States Naval Academy, Taps is closely related to Tattoo; the latter is derived from the Dutch word taptoe, time to close up all the taps and taverns in the garrisoned towns. The Century Dictionary defines the word as a beat of drum or bugle call at night, while "taps" is defined as a signal upon a drum or trumpet at about a quarter of an hour after tattoo.
Legends
There are several urban legends concerning the origin of Taps. The most widely circulated one states that a Union Army infantry officer, whose name is often given as Captain Robert Ellicombe, first ordered the Taps performed at the funeral of his son, a Confederate soldier killed during the Peninsula Campaign. This apocryphal story claims that Ellicombe found the tune in the pocket of his son's clothing and performed it to honor his memory. But there is no record of any man named Robert Ellicombe holding a commission as captain in the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign.
That Daniel Butterfield composed Taps has been sworn to by numerous reputable witnesses including Oliver Norton, the bugler who first performed the tune. While scholars continue to debate whether or not the tune was original or based on an earlier melody, few researchers doubt that Butterfield is responsible for the current tune.
Another, perhaps more historically verifiable, account involves John C. Tidball, a Union artillery captain who during a break in fighting ordered the tune sounded for a deceased soldier in lieu of the more traditional–and much less discreet–three volley tribute. Army Col. James A. Moss, in an Officer's Manual initially published in 1911, reports the following:
"During the Peninsula Campaign in 1862, a soldier of Tidball's Battery A of the 2nd Artillery was buried at a time when the battery occupied an advanced position concealed in the woods. It was unsafe to fire the customary three volleys over the grave, on account of the proximity of the enemy, and it occurred to Capt. Tidball that the sounding of Taps would be the most appropriate ceremony that could be substituted."
While not necessarily addressing the origin of the Taps itself, this does represent a milestone as the first recorded instance of Taps being used in the context of a military funeral. Until then, while the tune had meant that the soldiers' day of work was finished, it had little to none of the connotation or overtone of death with which it is so often associated today.
See also
Silver Taps and Echo Taps are local or special versions of the song.
The British and Commonwealth equivalent is "Last Post".
The Norwegian equivalent is the "Bønn" (Prayer).
In Germany and Austria "Ich hatt' einen Kameraden" ("I had a comrade") is played at every military funeral.
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