Bugle Calls Download Page

Audible signals have been used as a means of communications for centuries. In the military, troops were awaken, notified to assemble and soothed to sleep by bugle calls. Such was the case at Frederick Military Academy. Samples of the bugle calls that literally "made our day" at Frederick are included in the bugle calls below. Not all of the calls below were necessarily played at FMA. However, they have been included here to approximate the order that they may have been played during a typical soldier's or cadet's day (without repeating) from the historical perspective. These calls are based on the traditional Civil War bugle calls. For the purest, it should be noted that the Cavalry and Infantry had other calls or bugle signals which were the equivalent of verbal commands to march, halt, turn, flank and many others.

The following bugle calls are played by Charles Moll on an authentic Civil War bugle. Charles holds a BS Degree in Music Education from West Chester University with a major in Voice and Trumpet. He also holds a Master of Music Degree from West Chester University in Performance (Trumpet). The Compact Audio Disc "Bugle Calls of the Civil War" containing over 100 individual tracks is no longer available. You are welcome to download these WAV files to your own hard drive and make your own CD for personal use. You may NOT create any CDs for the sole purpose of selling them. Doing so is a blatant violation of applicable copyright laws and could cause this and all web sites to be forced to pay an outrageous royalty fee and thereby have to charge a fee to download music files or remove them from web sites altogether. Keep free music available on the Internet by respecting the above terms of use.

In 1999, the FMA Alumni Website, then under the management of The RDS Company and now AtHome Web Designs, was granted specific permission to publish these bugle calls in their entirety for educational use by the original copyright owner under the Fair Use Act. You may download and save these bugle calls for your own personal use; however, they may not be used for commercial purposes. Please contact the FMA Webmaster, stating your intentions if you wish to use these samples on your Website along with a link to your site or proposed web page. DO NOT directly link to the files on our server. Download your own samples and transfer them to your own web host, server or hard drive. If you do not know how, visit the HELP/FAQ page first before contacting the FMA Webmaster as several common questions are answered on that page. If you are still having problems with downloading the files, feel free to contact the webmaster by clicking the link at the bottom of any of our pages.

WAV files can be played with almost any Windows sound utility, i.e. Windows Media Player. (MAC users can play WAV files with SoundApp.) Please note that WAV formatted files can be large and take time to load. Because of the excessive bandwidth required for downloading WAV files, we have discontinued posting them and have replaced the WAV file links with MP3 links. MP3 files may be downloaded directly to an iPod or other portable digital music device. These bugle calls are loud and recorded as if you were in the same room with the bugler, so users beware!

NOTES: MIDI files of many of the bugle calls may be heard by clicking the

icon. The drum cadence sample is performed by your webmaster on a CB700 aluminum shell snare and does not have the deep rich tone of the FMA gut strung field drums that we used. It is also being played slightly faster than normal to reduce the overall file size. There is no MIDI sample but a shorter version can be accessed by clicking on the

icon. The FMA Webmaster recently converted a few of the marches into MP3 format along with the first part of our marching cadence. Although we are providing compressed WAV

files which take less time to load while retaining their original quality, your player may need additional CODECs to hear them. C Troop - 7th Calvary web site has graciously converted these bugle calls into much smaller MP3 formats. The QT compressed WAVs were converted from our WAV files by Paul Grainger of C Troop . Interested individuals needing the bugle calls in WAV format should contact the webmaster for special arrangements.

	BSA Req.	FILE SIZE	TITLE (MP3)	USES OF THE CALL
MP3		169 Kb	Drum Cadence	The first of seven segments of the FMA corps marching cadence
		139 Kb	First Call	Also known as Assembly of the Buglers, was used to wake the buglers and troops and was the first call of the day. First Call is also played to call riders to the starting gate of many horse races including the Kentucky Derby.
		63.7 Kb	Overcoats	Put on overcoats. Sounded immediately after First Call if required.
		201 Kb	The Reveille	Sounded for troops to make the morning roll call.
		145 Kb	The Assembly	Sounded for troops to assemble in formation on the parade field for morning roll call, report and the Morning Colors ceremony.
		349 Kb	To The Color	Sounded when raising the Standard. The Navy refers to this call as "Morning Colors" and was followed by the "carry on" signal on most Naval bases. (Carry On MP3 provided by Dennis Learned)
		220 Kb	Mess Call	Sounded for the assembly of the troops for meals.
		181 Kb	To Stable	Cavalry troops report to the stables to feed and groom their mounts.
		114 Kb	Water Call	Horses receive water or detail to replenish camp's water supply.
		207 Kb	Sick Call	Assembly of the sick for treatment.
		209 Kb	Fatigue	Signals troops to police grounds, clean quarters or report to other work assignments.
		162 Kb	Drill Call	Sounded to assemble on the drill field for instruction or drill.
		235 Kb	Assembly of Guard	Sounded to post guard detail.
		121 Kb	Orders	Sounded to post Orders of the Day.
		152 Kb	Recall	This was a multipurpose signal and was used at FMA primarily to recall cadets to their barracks.
		246 Kb	School	Sounded to report to classes.
		156 Kb	Adjutants Call	Guard detail march to guardhouse.
		170 Kb	Full Dress	Sounded for donning dress uniforms.
		718 Kb	Church	Sounded at 1000 hours for Sunday services.
		122 Kb	Issue or Distributions	Troops would assemble to receive distributions.
		89.2 Kb	Mail Call	Troops would assemble to receive mail.
		82.6 Kb	1st Sergeants Call	Company First Sergeants report to H.Q. with duty assignments and roll call reports.
		131 Kb	Officers Call	Sounded to call Officers to Head Quarters.
		131 Kb	Captains Call	Traditionally sounded at 1430 hours. (2:30 P.M.)
		308 Kb	Retreat	Sounded as the flag was lowered during the evening assembly.
		563 Kb	Tattoo	Secure the post and prepare for bed.
		353 Kb	Call to Quarters	Sounded to prepare for lights out and bed check.
		299 Kb	Taps	Played as the last call of the day - to stop all talking and have lights out by the last note.

The origin and words to "Taps" can be viewed by clicking on this text.

Other Calls and Marches
The following marches are the original arrangements from which the FMA Pass in Review melodies were derived. FMA took portions of these songs or perhaps over the years, the songs were modified to fit the needs of the Drum and Bugle Corps. Either way, listening to the following melodies will remind you of the songs that were played by the FMA Drum and Bugle Corps during parades and other ceremonies. To hear these songs, simply click on the title of the song below. These WAV files are larger than the bugle calls above and may take a minute or so to completely download. Some songs are also in QT format. Please be patient as they are worth the wait. A few of these marches have also been converted into MP3 format. Those persons with high speed connections may contact the webmaster for a link to a ZIP file containing all of the bugle calls in WAV format. WAV files do not compress in a ZIP file. It only adds the convenience of being able to download all of songs at once.