Taps
Soldier's final melody
Taps is a bugle call played at military funerals and memorial services, and to signal lights-out on military bases.
The melody is slow and mournful, associated with honoring the dead: They played Taps as the flag was folded.
The call has no official lyrics, though many exist. (Lowercase taps refers to faucets or light touches.)
reveille
Military dawn summons
lights out · memorial · cemetery · Arlington · soldier · honor · ceremony · dusk · tribute · veteran
- Civil War songsDixie, Lorena, battle hymns, marching songs, camp songs
- funeral musicdirge, requiem, funeral march, funeral hymns, death march
- War SongsLa Marseillaise, Anchors Aweigh, Rule Britannia, Dixie, Yankee Doodle
- camp songscampfire songs, Kumbaya, campfire song, sing-alongs, singalongs
- patriotismnational anthem, national flags, love of country, patriotism, flag waving
- war memorialwar memorial, military cemetery, national cemetery, Arlington National Cemetery, war dead
ceremonial function
Tapsfanfare
Ceremonial brass announcement
flourish · wedding march · birth announcement · processional
symbolic meaning
Tapswake-up call
Jolt into awareness
dawn chorus · alarm · opening bell · starting gun · first cry
- tap waterPlumbed household drinking source
- tap dancingFootwork with clicking shoes
- on tapReady to draw
- tap dancePercussive footwork performance
- tapped outExhausted of funds
- tap shoesFootwear with metal plates