Navy musician Kenneth Weir plays "Taps"

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Former Navy musician Kenneth Weir ended the 2017 Veterans Day Ceremony at Memorial Park in Cupertino, Calif. by playing "Taps," a bugle call played at U.S. military funerals.

More about "Taps":
The song “Taps,” which Weir played at the closing of the Memorial Park ceremony, is customarily played at U.S. military funerals. After the Seven Days Battle of the Civil War, Union General Daniel Butterfield wanted to revise the bugle call, or songs, played to welcome his soldiers back from the battlefield, as he thought that the previously used French call, “Extinguish Lights,” was too formal to end the day. Therefore, he adapted the melody of “Scott’s Tattoo” and created “Taps” in 1862. Shortly afterward, the bugle call was played for the first time at a funeral honoring a fallen Union cannoneer as another version of “Extinguish Lights.” Since then, the name of the tune has been changed to simply “Taps,” and has become a significant part of current military funerals.

Filmed by Kelsey Lu
Reporting by Jessica Li
Edited by Patricia Wei