A Closer Look at Bugle Calls
Music is a tool that has been used by many throughout history to compose beautiful works of art that evoke strong emotions, to enhance religious ceremonies, to entertain entire crowds, to earn money, to spread a political agenda, and even to communicate messages in military contexts, such as through the use of bugle calls. There are many different bugle calls for various contexts and purposes within the military, but they have also been appropriated for many other uses. This essay seeks to analyze the characteristics of bugle calls, and explore how they are used in various contexts.
There are twenty-five bugle calls currently used in the United States Army to announce scheduled and certain non-scheduled events. These short melodies can announce many events including meal times, payday, receiving mail, times for certain people to assemble at specified locations, and the time to turn off the lights at the end of the night. Bugles, among other instruments like the snare drum, were originally used to communicate in military settings because they were loud enough to be heard over the noise of battle. Although bugle calls can now be played on various other instruments such as the trumpet, the melodies of bugle calls are still constrained by the capabilities of the bugle. Since bugles have no valves, they are only able to play the notes of a single overtone series.
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The trumpet, although able to play chromatically by depressing various valve combinations, can be restrained to a set of notes within an overtone series by simply leaving the valves open, or keeping the same combination of valves depressed. Regardless of the instrumentation, the bugle calls are important in quickly communicating to large groups of people. A defining feature of bugle calls are the people who are involved when they sound. There would be no bugle call without the bugler, but the bugle call would not serve its purpose without soldiers to command, and without leaders to give the command, there would be no order. In order to fully understand “what is really going on” with a bugle call, we must look at everybody involved in the musicking. Musicking is a term originally coined and defined by Christopher Smalls as “to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance (what is called composing), or by dancing.” With this in mind, even soldiers with absolutely no musical skills are just as important in the musicking of bugle calls as the rigorously trained bugler. However, when analyzing the performance of bugle calls, bugling seems to have mainly presentational characteristics. As said by Thomas Turino in his book Music as Social Life, “Participatory music is not for listening apart from doing, presentational music is prepared by musicians for others to listen to, and this simple distinction has many ramifications.” If we apply this to bugle calls, the bugler plays a short melody for everybody else to hear. For it to be a bugle call there is no requirement for others to grab a bugle and play along, dance, or sing. The others are an audience who are meant listen, but soldiers aren’t just sitting quietly in rows watching the bugler perform. Rather, they are rolling out of bed, getting their mail, or going to areas designated by the specific call. There is “doing” involved, but it is not adding to the performance. In this context, for its intended purpose, bugle calls seem to be almost exclusively presentational, but there are many ways that people find to participate with bugle calls. Bugle calls are used in many ways that expand their meanings from their original contexts.
Still, within the military, it is common for soldiers to add their own lyrics to bugle calls and sing along. For the mess call, lyrics like “soupy, soupy, soupy, without a single bean; coffee, coffee, coffee, without a single bean; porky, porky, porky, without a streak of lean” are a way for soldiers to participate and make the day less mundane while also adding their own commentary. The sentiment of military food being bland or unappetizing is similar in many other countries’
militaries. For this German example, the lyrics can be translated, preserving the syllable count, as follows: “potato soup, potato soup, the whole day long, potato soup.” This is just another example of soldiers complaining about the food they are about to eat. Although these added lyrics are not a defining aspect, they are certainly worth a mention when analyzing bugle calls. Bugle calls are also used outside of military contexts, such as in the University of Minnesota Marching band, among many other bands. While playing pep band music at football games, the band will sometimes play the mess call. The crowd, in turn, shouts “Eat ‘em up! Eat ‘em up! Go big gold!” or some related variant if it is played at another school. The mess call, which calls soldier to the dining hall for meal times, is used at these sporting events to cheer on the home team so they will hopefully “eat up” the competition. This allows civilians not even remotely attached to the military an opportunity to participate with a bugle call. This also greatly increases the amount of people involved with the musicking of bugle calls.
Though the formation of our modern-day Concert Band does not date back quite as far as our modern-day Wind Ensemble, the extent of events, groups, composers, and advancements is quite similar. The evolution of the Concert Band dates back to the French Revolution. Large bands, full of unique instruments and amateur musicians, were required to play at festivals and ceremonies. Similar to the evolution of the Wind Ensemble, the Concert Band is derived from military purposes. Instruments, such as the trumpets, horns, and drums, were often used for signaling. In contrast to Wind Ensemble musicians, these Concert Band musicians never played their instruments for military enjoyment. The Concert Band musicians primarily played instruments to signal to the guards and villages. There were a few unique instruments, however, that were desired to play a military tune. These instruments include instruments such as a flute or bagpipe. Throughout the Middle Ages, this difference in military preference led to different job opportunities. For example, a cavalry company required trumpets, horns, and trumpets. On the other hand, foot soldiers would hire flute and bagpipe
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Reich, Steve. Writings about Music. Halifax: Nova Scotia Coll.of Art & Design P., 1974. Print.
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