[Dixielandjazz] TAPS

[Jim O'Briant]

James Mullins posted the following video link, calling it the full original
version of "Taps."

http://www.flixxy.com/trumpet-solo-melissa-venema.htm

Close but no cigar.

> The conductor of the orchestra is Andre Rieu from
> Holland. The young lady, her trumpet and her rendition
> of TAPS.

This is not "Taps." It is "Il Silenzio," written in 1965 by Nini Rosso and
Guglielmo Brezza, and based on "Taps."

> Many of you may never have heard taps played in its
> entirety, ...

"Taps" in its entirety is 24 notes long. No more.

> Melissa Venema, age 13, is the trumpet soloist.

Correct, in the video to which you link.

> Here is Taps played in its entirety.

No, the composition in the video clip is "Il Silenzio," based on "Taps."

> The Original version of Taps was called Last Post, ...

"Last Post" can be either a B-Flat bugle call within British infantry
regiments or an E♭ cavalry trumpet call in British cavalry and Royal Horse
Artillery regiments. Like "Taps," it is played at funerals. Like taps, it
can be played on a bugle. However, it is not the same as "Taps," nor was
"Taps" based on it.

"Taps" is a variation of an earlier bugle call known as the "Scott Tattoo"
which was used in the U.S. from 1835 until 1860, and was written in its
present form (24 notes only) by General Daniel Butterfield, of the Fifth
Corps of the Army of the Potomac while at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in
July 1862. Butterfield wrote it to replace a previous French bugle call used
to signal "lights out".

> ... and was written by Daniel Butterfield in 1801.

Butterfield was born in 1831.

> It was rather lengthy and formal, as you will hear in
> this clip, so in 1862 it was shortened to 24 notes and
> re-named Taps.

No, "Taps" as written by Butterfield was 24 notes. It was based on another
bugle call, but NOT on "Il Silenzio" You have it backward. "Taps was not
based on "Il Silenzio;" rather, "Il Silenzio: was based on "Taps."

> Melissa Venema is playing it on a trumpet whereby the original was played
on a bugle.

Correct.

There is also an "urban legend" about "Taps" which claims 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 such officer
in the Union Army.

Master Sergeant Jari Villanueva is a member of the United States Air Force
Band and is a historian about "Taps." This link is to his web page on the
history of "Taps."

http://www.jvmusic.net/historyoftaps.html

None of the above detracts from the fact that the young lady in the video
clip plays beautifully, or from the fact that "Il Silenzio" is a beautiful
and moving composition.

Jim O'Briant
Gilroy, CA