In William Golding’s, The Lord Of The Flies, a handful of boys make their first move toward self governance. They blow a conch shell on the beach to gather the other survivors of the WWII evacuee’s plane crash. Surely as this first note is blown with proper intention, the lives of William’s boys are rocketed straight to Hell. There is a golden haze encompassing this group of pig-killing choir boys. Man vs. Man. Boy vs. Boy… vs Nature etc., etc. It totally fascinates me.
The bugle and trumpet have often been used interchangeably and each of their histories is long and varied. Most horn players could tell you some really interesting shit about history. Something like this… maybe:
“Ancient trumpets were used at religious ceremonies and associated with magical rites. Burials, circumcisions, and sunset rites (to ensure the sun would return) were a few of the early ceremonies in which the trumpet was used. It was a male-dominated practice and among certain tribes of the Amazon any woman who looked at a trumpet was killed. The tradition of playing at sunrise (Reveille), sunset (Retreat), and at burials (Taps) may have evolved from these ancient rituals.” Read more here. The trumpet has been around longer, but the Bugle rose to prominence quickly for use in military campaigns. It originated from German hunting horns.
During the American Civil War, the Bugle could be heard from a distance of three miles over the sounds of artillery. Responsibility for sounding out commands and movement, interpreting the music of the Enemy bugle, playing at funerals and “lifting spirits” all fell under the Bugler’s job description. How do you get that job? Volunteer? Were any of these Buglers (or drummers for that matter) musicians before the war? Do you think they were ever targeted because of their important role – like medics in wars of the past?
There is a story that the Union army officer, Colonel James H. Wilson, employed 250 buglers during the battle of Front Royal, in Virginia on September 21st., 1864. The Union buglers charged the Confederate lines with each of them screaming through their instruments at the same time. The Confederates broke and ran in full flight. 
This story is not confirmed, but it wouldn’t be the first time such a tactic was used. Roman Legion… Zulu Nation…. I always imagined that buglers were solitary individuals and that’s probably from product advertising and not from being a genius, but I’m pretty sure (without really investigating) there were many buglers in every conflict. The utilization of horn players in battle goes back for centuries. As long as you could hear your Trumpeter or Bugle Boy or bagpipe player, you knew you were still okay in some way. How do military units fair when communication is lost? Take out the Bugler. No more direction. No more wake up call. Lose the Last Rites… It wouldn’t take long after that for things to fall apart without exceptional leadership. Seems like a smart enemy would train their sights on the horns before anything else!
Though there is this:
One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful.~ The Art of War
My propensity for lateral thinking takes me away from the Bugler for a second, so that we can talk about television actors who play the criminals in re-enactments on shows like America’s Most Wanted. I can’t help but think that there are scads of people who believe they are watching the actual crime itself unfold before them. Years ago, a slew of mid-westerners wouldn’t eat chicken because of an X-Files episode they saw.
KFC, Lazy Boys, fruited plains, and John Walsh. I wager that acting in a Cold Case Files type of show, would have you soon after suffering the scrutiny of security at grocery stores and airports. I think these actors aren’t safe from having their identity mistaken, unless all crime show actors live in Los Angeles. Because If you live there long enough, you just accept look-a-likes and criminals because everyone is a bastard. I once told a Houston traffic cop, that I had just seen a guy who was on the FBI’s most wanted list 2 blocks away. He didn’t take me seriously. It was probably my delivery. I’m not saying that crime scene re-enactors are stupid for having their trade and trying to make rent. I’m not saying anything. This is an aside. This whole thing is an aside.
The most famous Bugle music I know is TAPS. Taps replaced a song called “Lights Out” which was a military tattoo. The tattoo was predominantly used to tell Bartenders to “Turn off their taps” at 9:30pm sharp as soldiers were meant to return to their barracks. So, when you hear Taps playing at the next military funeral look at it like a last call for alcohol. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Bugles were eventually outmoded with the invention of radio, but up until the Vietnam War soldiers were trained in bugle calls, although today they are mostly used in ceremonies. Popular modern tunes include (ahem): “Come to Breakfast”, “Haven’t You Had Enough Alcohol” and “You’re Dead”.
One story about how Taps came to be, talks about a Union soldier who happens upon a dying Confederate soldier in a thicket. Though he risked punishment, the Union soldier brought the dying man to his camp and asked that he be spared. The guy died, but in his pocket was a piece of music. It was discovered that the young man was actually the runaway son of the Union soldier who found him, and the piece of music in his pocket was Taps… Sounds like a tidy and romantic little moral lesson doesn’t it? That’s why it’s not true. Most scholars agree that Union Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield wrote TAPS, and handed it to his Bugler, Oliver Norton, in 1862. It was played softly because the usual 3 volley tribute played for the dead would give away their location and get them killed. Ever see footage of soldiers smoking Opium and blasting “Purple Haze” and then they’ve been blown to Hell in the next frame? Back to the music. Sort of.
I’m sure that I am not the only one who considers battle cries musical. Along with wolves howling, pencils sharpening, elevator shafts dropping, glass breaking, fan lights clinking, radio static hissing and sea lions boning on icebergs… all music to me. A single word can be poetry. A spark can be fire. A drop of water can be a tidal wave. Canyons don’t jut out of deserts because of mystical reasoning or solely because of scientific arguments. The big picture has nothing to do with our logic or our desire. All music to me! Which brings me to the Rebel Yell!
“Then arose that do-or-die expression, that maniacal maelstrom of sound; that penetrating, rasping, shrieking, blood-curdling noise that could be heard for miles and whose volume reached the heavens–such an expression as never yet came from the throats of sane men, but from men whom the seething blast of an
imaginary hell would not check while the sound lasted.” -Colonel Keller Anderson of Kentucky’s Orphan Brigade.
“At last it grew too dark to fight. Then away to our left and rear some of Bragg’s people set up ‘the rebel yell’. It was taken up successively and passed around to our front, along our right and in behind us again, until it seemed almost to have got to the point whence it started. It was the ugliest sound that any mortal ever heard — even a mortal exhausted and unnerved by two days of hard fighting, without sleep, without rest, without food and without hope…” - Narrative of then-Lieutenant Ambrose Bierce, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XXI Corps, Army of the Cumberland, at the Battle of Chickamauga (Last Union defenses on Horseshoe Ridge, September 20, 1863)
So, what did we learn? The Rebel Yell wasn’t just a song by Billy-Leather-Dick-Idol, kids. It was the battle cry of Confederate soldiers used during the American Civil War. It was said to sound like a rabbit screaming, or an “Indian” whoop, or a wolf howl. There are a million stunning sounds out there in the Universe trying to vie for being on our individual life’s soundtrack. I can’t think of any sound more terrifying than being surrounded by thousands of armed men screaming and closing in to kill me. Actually, I can think of a more chilling sound. Hunters surrounding a dead stag and trumpeting a celebratory kill! Who would deny that this is also music?
My ancestors painted their faces blue and ran naked into skirmishes screaming their battle cry. It’s a little different now. Armies are pounding Celine Dion and Muslim chants across militarized zones to drive their enemy’s nuts and their morale down. Seems like it would just make the listener more determined and more hateful! Make them want to do anything to shut off the devil sound. Maybe the point is to drive men away from their Zen, and force them to act prematurely so they bungle their strategies. What other point is there to using music on front lines now-a-days? 
The Occasional artist travels overseas for publicity and the boosting of record sales – playing to rapidly aging boys and girls we kissed with death and big promises about “freedom”. Does standing in the middle of a battlefield require meditation? How does all of this shit work? Why are we so vile? Maybe some soldiers would say they couldn’t have made it through war without music. I’m sure that’s true. Now let’s see how they react in a department store or convenience store when confronted with their songs of war, 2 years later. If they had a particularly rough go at war, they would likely stop everything and leave the premises. And it wouldn’t be with a smile on their face. Music itself could be the trigger to a bullet that you can never dodge. But you can click here, to see what kind of music this group is sending the soldiers in the Middle East to listen to.
One participant of a modern survival education camp a couple of years ago was mortified by the idea of shitting in the wilderness. She just couldn’t do it. She had a real fear of crapping in public like an animal. She preferred instead to hold her bowels and be flown out by helicopter on the verge of death. I know that strange psychological things can overcome people at times, but what kind of music does a person like her need to get through the day? What songs does she need to make it on her battlefield of life? Dave Matthews? Cold Play? It’s probably not Wagner. It’s probably not anything I listen to, right? What kind of music would I take to War with me?
In our own way, we are all on the front lines of our own bodies and souls, fighting the whole Universe to maintain our defensive lines. But who cares about what music people like when we all swell with group gluttony on a Death Star blowing conches and forming alliances with the same results? Music isn’t going to save mankind. It’s like graffiti in stereo. It is beautiful, but that doesn’t really help us on a global front does it? Don’t get me wrong, I like listening to, talking about, making and reading about music, but it’s not much of an escape or a consolation – given how fucked up life is. While I was watching a documentary on Mahler, there was a quote about how Music is so important because” it is about the here and now”, and the here and now is all we really have. To be honest, I don’t know what that means, because tell me if I’m wrong… Wasn’t there yesterday? Isn’t that why we’re listening to Mahler?
Son of Ravyn, and myself have both been participating in The International Mixtape Project for some time. If you’re into exchanging mix cd’s, it’s pretty cool. Yesterday I recieved a “Lips and Assholes” mix featuring music from artists with inflated egos. Plus they’re cool, because Ryan Mixtape links to the NAP from their site.
Congratulations to the Cramer family. Here’s to wishing you all the best . And finally, I hope your art show goes well Kilian.
Most of the NAP’s readers have presumably seen this U.N.K.L.E./Radiohead/DJ Shadow “Rabbit in Your Headlights” video directed by Jonathan Glazer, but if you haven’t … it’s worth seeing.
I think you mauy be underestimating the power of mind and the power music can have on it. Remember the end of Brazil? Music can take you there, away from it all. Ask anyone who Ommms. though of course they would get blown up if a bomb landed on them (or a tree).
link to bugle history is bad
use
http://www.tapsbugler.com/HistoryoftheBugle/HistoryoftheBugleContents.html
“Aquarela do Brasil” is the name of the music I think you are referring to? While the lyrics are very romantic… the music actually creeps me out. Maybe because my exposure to it is limited to hearing it in the movie Brazil. I’m not saying that music doesn’t “take me away”… but how far can I responsibly go, knowing how bad the current state of affairs is? I’m not suggesting that everyone enjoying music is causing war either. I think the world would be a very unhappy world without the arts. I guess I have a lot of guilt about how I spend my free time, and no amount of rocking out can save me from my mind anymore. I must be an old person.
Thanks for the link info, anon. I fixed it.
yes, thats the song. I guess what i was getting at was the question of whether it is worth it to hang around for war if we have the option to go to a nirvana-like place. And if we don’t have a choice, then do we really have a responsibility? and if we do have a choice, then what is the extent of our responsibility towards either side? but i’m lazy and i’m sure some philosopher already worked that all out and i dont feel like finding out who or what the answer was, so i’ll just hang around doing what i like to do and hope it helps, if it doesn’t, oh well, too bad. pretty callous eh? but i’m cheerful and optimistic, maybe that counts for something.
Thanks Electramummy. Really enjoyed this piece and as always appreciate your thoughtfulness in placing image with text.
This might be NAP’s first foray into military music, no?
It ties in nicely with John’s piece because in both cases we’re dealing with music used as a supporting device.
The use of music in cinema is extremely varied and that is also true of military music, not just bugles, pipes and marching bands but things like the USO, the Andrew Sisters (and who can think of the Vietnam War without thinking of Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison or the Byrds etc…). Remember on that old t.v. show M*A*S*H, they were always playing records over the pa system to give some semblance of normalcy to the place? Or the German soldiers singing folk songs with Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles? And probably more than half the known folk songs in the entire world come out of war experience.
EM – I like that you’re questioning your relationship to music and its importance. I think we all do and we all change its importance from time to time. It makes me think of the Soul singers who go in and out of the secular music world and back to the church and struggle with the meaning of it all, sometimes pressured from within and sometimes from their community.
Of course the NAP is about conflating that importance but it’s worth stepping back every once in a while to realize sometimes music just means there’s something creepy in the woods and the campers are gonna get it.
Btw – I’m using one of your pieces to promote the show on Friday. It’s perfect! Houston come out!
p.s. this reminds me of an interview I just read with Francis Collins, a scientist known as much for heading the Human Genome Project as for being a Christian author. He was interviewed by John Horgan who is scientist “increasingly disturbed by religion’s influence on human affairs.” ANYWAY FC said this “…I don’t think we’ll ever figure out how to stop humans from doing bad things to each other. That will always be our greatest and most distressing experience here on this planet, and that will make us long the most for something more.”
That longing will always leave room for music.
anaconda: “Music can take you there, away from it all. Ask anyone who Ommms.”
That’s how I feel about throat singing. (See Genghis Blues for a gentle passive introduction.) I’m not good at it, but there’s something about finding and manipulating the resonant frequencies of my own insides that both makes me happy and keeps me from caring whether it sounds good to anyone else.
Though I guess that’s similar to how music-making works for me in general, something special happens with the purely internal physical concentration… I can continue to drive, be aware of my surroundings, function, but nothing unnecessary stays in my mind.
Yet another reason I’m looking forward to some solo road-tripping this summer.
electramummy: “I guess I have a lot of guilt about how I spend my free time, and no amount of rocking out can save me from my mind anymore.”
That is why I have so much respect for people that can address those problems with these problems. And personally speaking I’m glad you understand my motivations.
Hirojito was a nasty bastard for sure Anaconda. What amazes me CONSTANTLY is the fact that these atrocities against mankind continue… as in still going on… and look at our “news” channels. The “news” probably disgusts me more than the actual events not being reported most of the time. When I turn on my television and see Barbie Cut out newscasters telling me about the most banal shit on the face of the planet, knowing that something like a few thousand people just died in a country somewhere that 95% of our population have never heard of… myself included. How desperately sad is that? Tap Tap Tap on the keys…. what else am I going to do? I’ve pretty much excised myself from society where I live now, in a way that puts me closer to the edge of some of these issues… or maybe not. Maybe you poor sad sacks in the cities are closer to dealing with these issues of war and poverty etc. I think I am always a personal tragedy away from going far away from this culture… Why do I need an excuse to get involved?
Kilian, Thanks for your wednesday spot. Interesting point you bring up about soul singers… It’s probably not easy to be a soul singing devil worshipper.
Jonathan, there’s something rewarding about picturing you throat singing downstairs from the old school baptists who moved here from Texas.
Our cash culture is so fucked up… and I buy right into it… every day.
Kilian,
I forgot to mention, that your comment about the music sometimes just existing to let us know there is a monster in the woods.. reminded me of my trip to Florida last summer. (The ringling Brothers Museum was pretty cool) Anyways, we were passing through a really affluent neighborhood. A gigantic stone and gated driveway obscured the view of some million dollar homes. There was something really pleasing to me that the name of the development was “Crystal Lake”. Even though I talk all this Peace crap.. I hope one day a murderer re-enacts Friday 13th behind those gates.
The guy Kilian quotes speaks the truth:
“…I don’t think we’ll ever figure out how to stop humans from doing bad things to each other.”
EM, I have a pretty negative view of human nature: essentially we are fairly clever, hairless apes with machine guns and credit cards; but we’re apes nonetheless and we continue to behave that way. Some people process that fundamental view, accept it, and become conservatives, and others react by wanting to improve humanity, and they become progressives. I don’t necessarily use these terms “progressive” or “conservative” in a contemporary political sense, but more in a philosophical sense.
I believe that the thing that makes us want to machine gun each other, steal each other’s shit and pillage the earth without remorse, is the same thing that makes us make beautiful music. If you take the monkey out of the man, you end up with Air Supply. This, to me, is the inherent risk of progressivism. The inherent risk of conservatism is that we trundle along like apes, rutting, stealing and murdering each other, for the rest of eternity. But at least we get to listen to metal while we’re doing it.
To me, music is the one decent thing that human beings offer up to the world. It redeems us for being the utter bastards that we are otherwise. I like to think of some alien coming to this planet, unnoticed, and watching human beings, kind of the way we watch squirrels or birds. They’d see a lot of fucking and fighting and generally screwing things up, and they’d think, “Man what a bunch of useless, poo-flinging monkeys” – until they happened to catch one of us singing or playing an instrument, at which point they’d say, “Oh….”
It’s a nice thought, anyway, and it helps me sometimes when I have pretty much had it with the human race.
Let’s just hope the aliens don’t visit during a Celine Dion concert…sigh…
SoH,
Well said. I think I’m just personally spent this month which is why the tone of my guest blog wasn’t all peaches. My husky was one of four dogs killed by wolves this week…. My kid brother has had a really bad break down and been diagnosed with paranoid delusional schizophrenia, and our village is in serious trouble…. Our school is probably going to have to close because of low enrollment.. which means extra bad things all across the board… So, none of this is really relative to the topic at hand, except that IT’S REALLY WHAT IS GOING ON IN MY HEAD, and this gloomy column was a side effect.
Are there really aliens? Why don’t we know that yet?
GIVE US SUMMER PLEASE!
Sparrow – Ah now, you’re giving apes a bad rap. Apes are social critters. You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours types. Don’t mix them up with ugly old people.
EM – I had a feeling you were going through some rough times. You’re in my thoughts. I guess it’s time for home schoolin’ at the Yanik household.
Venting is good for you. I’m sorry to hear about your school, I would imagine there are many, many challenges to living in such a remote place. But there must be rewards too, like being able to take pictures of eagles that look like they’re just hanging out with you in your living room, for example. Actually I didn’t find the column gloomy at all, really more just thought provoking.
At this time I would also like to publicly apologize to any apes I may have offended with my comments. I realize that many apes found my comparison of them to humans deeply hurtful and insensitive, and I regret any pain that these comments may have caused.
Sorry for the off-topic:
In case anyone was interested in the Name That Tune on this week’s podcast but couldn’t quite place it, I’m posting clues in the podcast comment thread.
Hope someone figures it out before the next one is due!
EM,
Nice post; I really enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for the rambling narrative. : )
Dammit! Vonnegut too? What the hell kind of week is this? I guess I can toast Vonnegut and my dog tonight, eh?
Thanks, Ramon.
Jonathan and those trying to guess the NTT… I think I narrowed it down. (think). One of you guys could probably nail it if you saw the clues in the NAPcast thread. I don’t know it off hand.
Kilian, Take pictures tomorrow!