Instruments - Part 29

 Bugle

The bugle, trumpet, and horn are all descended from a common instrument, shown here on an ancient Greek vase described as Battle of Greeks vs Amazons with Trumpeter (late 5th to early 4th century BC).

This painting, Dream of Human Life, by Alessandro Alori, 1570-1590, is copied after a drawing by Michelangelo.  It shows a naked man surrounded by the deadly sins (gluttony, lust, avarice, envy, wrath, and sloth).  For some reason pride is missing.  A naked angel blasts a trumpet into his ear.  It's supposed to be an allegory, but don't ask me what it means.

The main feature that distinguishes a bugle from a trumpet is that a trumpet has valves to allow it to play different notes of the musical scale.  A bugle doesn't.  So these ancient "trumpets" could be called bugles, since they have no valves.

These are French soldiers standing at attention in 1914, with a bugler at right.  Finally we see the bugle in its modern shape.  The long tube of the bugle is bent around into a loop, so it's just as long but the instrument is more compact than the yard-long ancient trumpets.

Because the bugle has no valves, it can only play one note plus its harmonics, giving the series of notes that make up familiar bugle calls such as "Reveille" and "Taps."

Another vintage photo of soldiers with a bugle, thought to date from between the world wars.  I got this photo from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

This statue of the Second Transylvanian Hussar by Lajos Petri, 1935, is in Budapest, Hungary.  The hussar, naked except for his helmet, holds a bugle.

This is our clearest picture yet showing the shape of a bugle.  But maybe you weren't looking at the bugle.  This is Mike Stern in a photo I got from Bob's Naked Guys.  Thanks, Bob!

Is Mike playing Reveille, to wake us up, or Taps, to send us to bed?  Considering where he's sitting, I think he's inviting us to come to bed.