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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
I'm subscribed to the snopes.com mailing list, and this week's newsletter contained a report on urban legend about the origin of the US military bugle call known as Taps. Having never heard it, I downloaded it, and immediately thought that it sounded like the piece known in the Commonwealth as "The Last Post". So, I went looking to see if I could find out where they came from, and which came first. This led me, among other places, to this: In reply to:
The Last Post is one of a number of bugle calls in military tradition which mark the phases of the day. Where "Reveille" signaled the start of a soldier's day, the "Last Post" signaled its end. It is believed originally to have been part of a more elaborate routine, known in the British Army as "tattoo", that had its origins in the 17th century. During the evening, a duty officer had to do the rounds of his unit's position, checking that the sentry posts were manned and rounding up the off-duty soldiers and packing them off to their beds or billets. He would be accompanied by one or more musicians. The "first post" was sounded when the duty officer started his rounds and, as the party proceeded from post to post, a drum was played. The drum beats told off-duty soldiers it was time to rest - if the soldiers were billeted in a town, the beats told them it was time to quit the pubs. "Tattoo" is a derivation of doe den tap toe, Dutch for "turn off the taps", a call which is said to have followed the drum beats in many a Dutch pub while English armies were campaigning through Holland and Flanders in the 1690s. (It is also from this routine that American practice of "taps" or "drum taps" originated.) Another bugle call was sounded when the party completed their rounds, when they reached the "last post": this signaled the night sentries were alert at their posts and gave one last warning to any soldiers still at large that it was time to retire for the evening. "Last Post" was incorporated into funeral and memorial services as a final farewell and symbolises that the duty of the dead is over and that they can rest in peace.
Does that sound feasible as an etymology? It sounds a bit legendary itself, to me.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Whilst the occasion for sounding "Taps" is the same as for "Last Post", the tunes are quite different. Taps is the 'easier' tune of the two, as evidenced by the fact that I had mastered this tune on the bugle (in the days before a bicycle accident robbed me of some front teeth and ended my career as a brass player), whilst I was still struggling to manage "Last Post."
The story behind it sounds reasonable, too.
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
Thank you both. I guess it means that just because an etymology is folksy doesn't make it a folk etymology.
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Posts: 96
journeyman
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journeyman
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Posts: 96 |
Has anyone heard of the 'sanglot'? Apparently an urban legend about the "sob" in 'Taps'. It happened during JFK's funeral and was copied...and still is copied...by those who think it was deliberate!
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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that's a new one on me, amnow. where in taps does it usually occur?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Stickball as in sanglot baseball?
Googling sanglot taps produces some interesting results. Two hits: the complete text of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in doc form and a pdf of what appears to be a langue d'oc page.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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sanglot baseballcaught that one. 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
If anyone cares: http://www.west-point.org/taps/Taps.htmlhttp://44tennessee.tripod.com/dutchman/taps.htmlWell, I found this, but still don't get sanglot:
One of the most famous taps performances was at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 25, 1963. It was extremely cold that day. Sgt. Keith Clark, principal bugler of the U.S. Army Band, "was out there way early," English says. "The muscles just aren't working unless it's warm," English says.
Six notes into taps, Clark "cracked" a note. Clark died in 2002 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was quoted as saying he "missed a note under pressure." English blames the cold for the broken note. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-06-10-bugler-reagan_x.htm
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jul 2004
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If you say the words, the 'sob' is at "sun", as in "day is done, gone the sun". See http://www.tapsbugler.com/BrokenNote.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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There is a character in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold named Sanglot, I think.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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The sanglot is a lot older than the JFK funeral and is deliberate on the part of a really good player. It was my understanding that the "sob" was of French origin and was included in the rendition played at the end of the JFK interment at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
So--the word for the cracked note is sanglot?
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
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Sanglot is an itneresting word with a murky etymology. Meyer-Lübke gives *singultus and *singluttus as possible Vulgar Latin words of origin. Both meaning 'schlucken; to gulp, swallow, guzzle'. No doubt related to glottus 'throat, gullet'. Gamillscheg gives *subgluttus 'schluchzen; sob'. Nothing to do with blood as one might think.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Nothing to do with blood as one might think. I did, actually--thanks. Me, I'd plump for your second possibility over the first: "gulp, swallow, guzzle" is the opposite of what you do to blow a horn.
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