24 Notes

Twenty-four notes.
That's all there is in "Taps," probably the most recognized and most played trumpet solo in history.
All notes are played with one fingering on the three-valved trumpet or cornet. Or it can be played with no fingering at all, bugle-style.
Today is Veteran's Day, and "Taps" could be heard resonating throughout civic centers, schools, outdoor settings and elsewhere throughout the land.
As a longtime trumpeter, I've played "Taps" many times. My first experience playing it before a crowd came in junior high, early one Sunday morning during the state muzzleloader championship in Brady, Texas. Brady is the geographic dead center of Texas, or at least the town of about 5,000 bills itself as such. "Taps" and a rifle volley came early that Sunday to honor deceased muzzleloaders as well as the soldiers who secured our freedom to have a muzzleloader competition.
My latest performance came this morning, when I played it as a duet with another trumpet player before an audience of about 100 people, many of them World War II veterans, to close out an event at the Beaumont Civic Center.
I can't think of anything else in music that evokes a somber mood the way that "Taps" does.
"Taps" originated in July 1862 during the Civil War after the bloody Seven Days battles at Harrison's Landing near Richmond, Va. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, a wounded commander for the Army of the Potomac, and his bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, reworked another bugle call, "Scott Tattoo," into "Taps."
According to http://www.usmemorialday.org/taps.html, Butterfield thought the regular "Lights Out" was too formal, so the Army of the Potomac adopted "Taps."
Then other Union units - and even a few Confederate units - began using "Taps." It became an official bugle call after the war. According to Col. James A. Moss, in an officer's manual published in 1911, "Taps" for a military funeral was first used during the Peninsular Campaign in 1862. Apparently, the customary three volleys fired over a fallen soldier's grave often brought enemy fire, so "Taps" was used to hold off the shooting.
"Taps" has lyrics, too, although they apparently are not considered official:

Day is done
gone the sun
From the hills
from the lake
From the skies
All is well
safely rest
God is nigh

Go to sleep
peaceful sleep
May the soldier
or sailor
God keep
On the land
or the deep
Safe in sleep

Love, good night
Must thou go
When the day
And the night
Need thee so?
All is well
Speedeth all
To their rest

Fades the light
And afar
Goeth day
And the stars
Shineth brigh
Fare thee well
Day has gone
Night is on

Thanks and praise
For our days
'Neath the sun
'Neath the stars
'Neath the sky
As we go
This we know
God is nigh

During our "Taps" performance this morning, I could see the appreciation in the eyes of veterans in the audience. With all eyes - as well as television and newspaper cameras - on me and superior trumpeter Joey Love, a fellow member of the Lamar University Wind Ensemble, seeing their appreciation helped me snuff the stomach butterflies and provide the motivation and confidence to not split one or more of those 24 notes.
I also had my dad, a World War II veteran, in mind while playing. He served aboard B-29s and other bombers during that defining moment for The Greatest Generation. As a kid, I used to ask him if he ever killed anybody, and he said, "I hope not."
That speaks volumes about a bomber's mindset and ability to cope with all the blood, death and destruction.
During the days and weeks of harsh living in the Hurricane Rita aftermath, knowing that soldiers in war had it far worse than most of us will ever know injected some stark perspective into the picture here.
When I felt tired or down, I thought about some guy on his belly on a D-day beach or up to his ass in water in a Vietnam jungle. Or the Confederate soldier facing a wall of flying metal as he marched to his doom during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.
Living in relative comfort and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and potato chips for week following Rita didn't seem like much of an inconvenience compared to war or even just the training to get there. We didn't need to play "Taps" for any of our news soldiers, although they certainly rose for the occasion and displayed a different brand of courage and dedication to the cause.
I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for those old veterans who cram themselves into medal-covered uniforms once a year to attend Veteran's Day ceremonies. It's a shame that attendance at these events is spotty, at best. Businesses should give their employees time off to go. Schools should bus in students and give them a lesson in freedom's price.
And they all should hear "Taps" the way it was meant to be played: long, slow, somber and full of emotion.
Twenty-four notes. I've seen that many notes sprayed into one little measure of the lengthy, mind-boggling pieces the Lamar Wind Ensemble often plays.
But those 24 simple notes speak for themselves, like the actions of those who endured so much and yet often say so little about their experiences.