Bugle call

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A bugle call is a short tune, originating as a military signal. A defining feature of a bugle call is that it consists only of notes from a single overtone series. This is in fact a requirement if it is to be playable on a bugle or equivalently on a trumpet without moving the valves. (If a bandsman plays calls on a trumpet, for example, one particular key may be favored or even prescribed, such as: all calls to be played with the first valve down.)

Some examples of bugle calls:

Alarm (as played by Sam Jaffe near the end of Gunga Din)
Assembly

Boots and saddles

Call to Quarters

Church Call

Drill

Fatigue

Fire

First Call or Call to the Post (familiar at horse tracks in the US)

Last Post

Mess

Officers

Recall

Retreat

Reveille

The Rouse

Sick Call

Swimming Call

Taps

Tattoo

To the Color/Morning Colors

An appendix to Upton's A New System of Infantry Tactics (1867) contains the tunes of numerous calls in addition to the ones listed above, such as "Turn Right," "Turn Left," "Rise Up," "Lay Down," "Commence Firing," "Cease Firing," and so on.

Historically, bugles, drums, and other loud musical instruments were used for clear communication in the noise and confusion of a battlefield. Naval bugle calls were also used to command the crew of warships (signalling between ships being by way of signal flags.)

Link to 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica article

[edit] Popular culture

Many of the familiar calls have had words made up to fit the tune. For example, the US Reveille goes:

I can't get 'em up,

I can't get 'em up this morning;

I can't get 'em up,

I can't get 'em up at all!

The corporal's worse than the privates,

The sergeant's worse than the corporals,

Lieutenant's worse than the sergeants,

And the captain's worst of all!

< repeat top six lines >

and the US Mess Call:

Soupy, soupy, soupy, without a single bean!

Coffee, coffee, coffee, without a drop of cream!

Porky, porky, porky, without a streak of lean!

Irving Berlin wrote a tune called, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning". In a filmed version of his musical, This Is the Army, he plays a World War I "doughboy" whose sergeant exhorts him with this variant of words sung to "Reveille": "Ya gotta get up, ya gotta get up, ya gotta get up this morning!" after which Berlin sang the song.

"Taps" has been used frequently in popular media, both sincerely (in connection with actual or depicted death) and humorously (as with a "killed" cartoon character).

"Taps" is also quoted in the introduction to the popular big band hit Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. Written by Don Raye and Hughie Prince, likely the most well known recording was done by The Andrews Sisters.

Another popular use of the "Mess Call" is a crowd cheer at football or basketball games. The normal tune is played by the band, with a pause between the third and fourth lines to allow the crowd to chant loudly, "Eat 'em up! Eat 'em up! Rah! Rah! Rah!"