Talk:Bugle call

US-centric section

As near as I can make out, the section giving examples only deals with US military bugle calls. As exemplified by articles such as Bugle calls of the Norwegian Army, each nation has its own set of calls, which are often quite different. Not being an expert, I'm not sure of the best way to solve this though (and may be wrong, too). -Kieran (talk) 06:11, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

This being the English Wikipedia, I think the present arrangement will do nicely until someone comes along with a better one. The tagged section mentions two specifically British calls: Alarm, and the Rouse. Bugle calls "in other languages" are accessible at 'See also'. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 14:10, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

If I may revisit this old topic, would it be better to:

1) only list some of the more common bugle calls as examples, and then specify which nation(s) use them

2) reduce the article to the history of bugling as a type of military communication and the influence that's had on music, and then split off notable examples into their own articles? I note that there are quite a few articles/stubs in Category:Bugle calls that seem redundant with this article. It seems like the info in this article could easily be put into those articles, or maybe they could all be compiled into a single article about U.S. or English bugle repertoire? Canute (talk) 20:22, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Tunes, not songs

Even though some bugle calls may have parody lyrics (perhaps in aid of helping recruits make sense of them,) they are more properly called "tunes" or "melodies" than "songs," since their primary function is instrumental, not vocal. _ Just plain Bill 02:54, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

A question: Does anybody know who wrote any of these melodies, and when? -- Particulaly the "Post Call" -- ? 170.20.96.116 (talk) 01:13, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

"Foreign" calls

In cases where forces using bugle calls were in opposition or supposed to act cooperatively, did anybody have responsibility for recognising and reporting the foreign calls? MarkMLl (talk) 09:38, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Suggest making separate articles for each call

The article as it is now is a bit cluttered, and also really not organized encyclopedically. I suggest we make a separate article for each call, and then list all those articles, with a few explanatory notes, in a section within this main article. What thinks? MatthewVanitas (talk) 04:01, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Sure, why not? Easier to navigate that way, yes? __Just plain Bill (talk) 05:52, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Frankly I don't see the point in having essentially a "stub" article for each of what could be several dozen individual bugle calls.

It seems like a more encyclopedic, useful, and efficient approach would be to have a single List of Common Bugle Calls. This should be grouped by country, and include each call's staff notation, an audio sample in a common format (eg., WAV or MP3), and a line about common usage.

The list could then be linked in this article. It would make a lot more sense to have a single location for all examples, rather than the current situation is which one might have to access multiple articles of one call each. Such a list would also provide a motivation to provide similar information for every call -- right now some calls have staff notation while other don't; some have audio examples in weird formats; others don't have any audio example; etc.

67.206.183.15 (talk) 01:02, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

I agree with MatthewVanitas. The current list is a mess. The list should be a list only with the name of the call, and a brief summary. Notation, sound samples, and memorisation ditties should be on an article page, not cluttering up the list. If a call has all these associated with it, it is notable enough to have its own article. Those who are interested enough to know will click the article link to see them after reading the summary. If we improve this article to have a world-wide perspective, there will be multiple sets of notation just for the English-speaking countries, leading to even more clutter.

As for lists, there should be several lists, one that is for common calls still in use on ships and in garrisons, and a historical one for mostly disused cavalry calls (outside of ceremonial units) such as "Trot", "Left Wheel into Line", and for infantry calls like "Disperse", "To Close", "Skirmishers" and "Rally on the Chief", etc. Calls that have different names in different countries but are functionally the same (Rouse/First Call) can probably be merged as articles, and should appear on the list with a "See also" or similar verbiage. --Jpbrenna (talk) 03:49, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Removed "wikify" and "tone" tags

Nice going so far... In this diff I took off the "wikify" tag, although perhaps a few more links in the lead paragraph might be useful. I also removed the breathless prose that prompted the "tone" tag, along with the tag itself. __Just plain Bill (talk) 16:06, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

audio samples

this page should have audio samples of bugle calls as well as the musical notation. here's a sample audio sample page. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/bugle.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.102.30.217 (talk) 12:07, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Bold Names

Unless there's a reason or difference I'm not seeing, either all of the names of the calls should be bold or none of them should be. Anyone have strong feelings either way? Chazchaz101 (talk) 08:19, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

All bold will make the page easier to scan, in my opinion. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 15:36, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Details

The main article is short details that flesh out the history of bugle calls. Particularly useful would be who and when was the call first originated. What is the call musically and the memory words that go with it. Many would like this about the ubiquitus "Taps". As a contribution, I recall my personal favorite. Mess Call. "Soupy. Soupy. Soupy. Come and get your grub." repeated three times, then "Come and get it." I am partially incomplete with my least favorite, Reveille. "I can't get em up" repeated three times, then "... in the morning." then I go blank. Selective memory of an old man, I would guess. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ghigley (talk • contribs) 16:32, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Discrepancy in To The Colors

The score presented for To The Colors does not correspond to the audio file; specifically, the printed score is missing a few measures near the end as compared with the audio. I don't have the software to create a new picture - would someone be able to fix this either by creating a new image or providing a different recording? NehpestTheFirst (talk) 06:53, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

The image is incorrect; it is missing four measures. The part after the last breath mark could be written as D.C. al fine with the fine at the second breath mark. I think it is more usually written out as one line without the D.C., though. I might be able to do some cutting and pasting in Inkscape... Jazzmanian, are you still around? Is there a more convenient way to fix this? __ Just plain Bill (talk) 13:12, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

I came here to say the same thing. --173.48.1.91 (talk) 02:37, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

French calls

To have informations about French military signals, go to this page : <https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_d'ordonnance>. You'll find the best links about "céleustique", it's the French word for military signals to avoid confuse with military music. About French military songs, you can see this page : <https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chant_militaire>. --Silvestrik (talk) 14:40, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Merging

Hello fellow Wikipedians! I just completed a merge from Call to Quarters into this article under the Bugle calls section. I think it would be wise to merge all of the stub-class articles into either this article or a new list titled List of Bugle Calls. I personally think it's a little silly to have so many very short articles, when they could just as easily be put into a list. –Daybeers (talk) 08:37, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Globalize

The top of the article has a Globalize tag from 2010. What are we supposed to do about this? Is there widespread use of bugle calls in non-Western nations that we need to include? The Bugle article states that it comes from a Roman tradition, and that modern military practice stems from 18th century use in Hanover and England. So I'm not surprised if they're more common in Western cultures (and those influenced by Western empires), but if we're supposed to find other uses, someone please point me in the right direction. Canute (talk) 14:20, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

I don't know for sure, but one thing to check for would be that in each section we are careful to not let it sound like something is common practice everywhere, when really it's only common in one country. It's easy for a person to think their own country's customs are shared by others, when they're not. Therefore, qualifying most of our statements with "US", "British", and other individual countries is often better.

Many countries that are Western or heavily Western-influenced are also not mentioned much in the article, and they have different traditions: there's not very much here about anybody really, except US and UK. (There's an image here from an old French book that I find interesting because it sounds American to me; early US history included significant admiration of the French, and perhaps that extended to bugle calls.)

And the knowledge of bugle calls is often passed among the players in a certain service rather than being in a place easily accessible by the public. (For example, if you wanted to know Swedish army bugle calls, you'd need a knowledgeable person connected with the Swedish army, ideally someone who currently trains the players; if you do find anything in libraries, it has a good chance of being wrong or out of date and you wouldn't know.)

The exact calls used in each service of each country are not secret per se, but they're not really common knowledge either. And only the people who have to play these calls know all of them; the rest of us only know the few we've heard. TooManyFingers (talk) 16:27, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

History

In the History section it says:

"The bugle gained widespread use in horse mounted units, where the more common signals of drums and fifes were impractical."

What made those impractical? They couldn't be heard properly over the noise of horses and men (or of guns)? It takes both hands to play a fife or drum? (Most bugles are easily held in one hand while playing.) Or what? TooManyFingers (talk) 15:30, 10 November 2024 (UTC)