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 Abbreviations/music lexicon
| Abbreviation |
Tpto |
| German (de) |
Zapfenstreich |
| English (en) |
military tattoo |
| French (fr) |
tattoo |
| Dutch (nl) |
taptoe |
| Norwegian (no) |
tappenstrek |
| Swedish (sv) |
tapto |
| Definition/synonyms |
The original meaning of military tattoo is a military drum performance, but nowadays it sometimes means army displays more generally.
It dates from the 17th century when the British Army was fighting in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands). Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21:30 hrs (9:30PM) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night. The drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22:00 hrs (10:00PM). Tattoo, earlier tap-too and taptoo, are alterations of the Dutch words tap toe which have the same meaning.
"Taps" is a musical piece sounded by the U.S. military nightly to indicate that it is "lights out". The tune is also sometimes known as "Butterfield's Lullaby", or by the lyrics of its second verse, "Day is Done".The term originates from the Dutch term taptoe. The tune is actually a variation of an earlier bugle call known as the "Scott Tattoo" which was used in the U.S. from 1835 until 1860, and was arranged in its present form by the Union Army Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield, an American Civil War general who commanded the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division in the V Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac while at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in July 1862 to replace a previous French bugle call used to signal "lights out". |
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