"Taps" has just 24 notes, but some brass players will tell you they're the 24 hardest notes to play.
One of the most infamous choke-jobs was when Sgt. Keith Clark, principal bugler of the U.S. Army Band, botched the tune during John F. Kennedy's 1963 funeral.
"The best trumpet player in the country, and he blew it," said University of Alaska Anchorage professor and 47-year bugle player Philip Munger.
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| Courtesy of Philip Munger |
 On Taps: Philip Munger plays the trombone. |
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"Sometimes when a person plays 'Taps,' a lot of people in the memorial service break up because it finally hits home," he said. "It's hard to get through that. Sometimes I have to close my eyes when I'm playing."
Munger wrote "Shards," an electro-acoustic riff on "Taps," in late 2004 to recognize the 1000th U.S. serviceman killed in Iraq. With the coalition death toll now well over 4,000, Munger has revisited the piece and composed "Shards II" for the 2007 CrossSound festival.
The piece will have its world premiere during "Fault Lines," 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, at Northern Light United Church on 11th Street. Conducted by Vancouver composer Owen Underhill, the night includes six chamber works and four world premiers played by the Quake and SitkaSound Ensemble.
The program runs at 7:45 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, at Harrigan Centennial Hall in Sitka, and at 7:45 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2, at the Chilkat Center for the Performing Arts in Haines.
Munger's "Shards II" lasts 5 minutes, 10 seconds and was commissioned for bugle, flute, cello, alto saxophone, two trumpets, trombone, electronics and recorded sound.
Known as a composer, Munger mostly plays low brass and keyboard. He's taught in the University of Alaska system for 14 years, since starting at the Mat-Su Valley campus in 1994.
During the Clinton administration, he joined a national organization of volunteers called Bugles Across America. The group was formed during the mid-1990s, as a peak number of World War II, Korean and Vietnam war veterans were dying.
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| Courtesy of Philip Munger |
| Between conducting, Munger wrote a modern version of 'Taps' titled 'Shards.' A new version premieres in Juneau Sat., Sept. 1, at Northern Light United Church. |
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To make up for the cuts to military bands, the Pentagon designed a Pakistan-made digital bugle. It was essentially a computer. You pushed a button and it played an mp3 of "Taps."
Bugles Across America formed to provide human buglers to memorial ceremonies.
"Right about the time I was thinking about writing this, I read about Donald Rumsfeld, who had a signature-writing machine for letters of condolence to servicemen and service women," Munger said.
"This is more a protest against not only the automation, but also the dehumanization that goes with that," he said. "We're getting into robo-war."
Munger has played "Taps" during funeral ceremonies at Fort Richardson dozens of times over the years. He also served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
"I've sat with friends of mine in the veteran's hospital as they were passing away, and I know how dehumanizing that can be, too," he said.
"Shards II" takes "Shards" and adds an instrumental accompaniment to the original score.
Munger plays on a single-key Lawler bugle. Thirty-six of the bugles were custom-made for the U.S. Army Fife and Drum Corps, but only about 17 remain. Munger was borrowing his on temporary loan, but the Army gave it to him after it heard about "Shards."
Standard bugles are in the key of G. The Lawler is tuned in B-flat and has a single piston that can modify the key to A-flat.
Munger also will premiere "Nice Work Kid. Don't Come Back!" - a fishing story from Munger's days gillnetting on the Copper River, from 1973 to the early 1980s.
In the spring of 1976, the fleet was fishing for salmon off Softuk Bar, west of Katalla, when the Coast Guard announced a tsunami warning. Everyone headed for the horizon. But Munger loitered just outside Barney's Hole, the well-known and highly effective king-set of a fisherman known as Black Bart.
"I looked at my watch, and we were about 45 minutes from the best king-set of the spring," Munger said. "I went back and set my net out and caught so much fish it paid for my boat.
"As I was almost done pulling them up, Barney came back," he said. "He looked it over and laughed and said, 'Nice work, kid. Don't come back! It was the first time he missed a set in his hole in years."
As with "Shards," the piece was commissioned for cello, flute, alto saxophone, two trumpets and trombone.
• Korry Keeker can be reached at 523-2268 or korry.keeker@juneauempire.com.
