Memorial Day, Part 1--The Trumpeter

(Text borrowed from this excellent site)

THE TRUMPETER (Text: J. Francis Barron; music: J. Airlie Dix, 1904)

Trumpeter, what are you sounding now?
(Is it the call I'm seeking?)
"You'll know the call," said the Trumpeter tall,
"When my trumpet goes a-speakin'.
I'm rousin' 'em up;
I'm wakin' 'em up,
The tents are astir in the valley,
And there's no more sleep with the sun's first peep,
For I'm soundin' the old 'Reveille!'"

Trumpeter, what are you sounding now?
(Is it the call I'm seeking?)
"Can't mistake the call," said the Trumpeter tall,
"When my trumpet goes a-speakin'.
I'm urgin' 'em on,
They're scamperin' on,
There's a drummin' of hoofs like thunder.
There's a madd'nin' shout as the sabres flash out,
For I'm sounding the 'Charge' no wonder."

Trumpeter, what are you sounding now?
(Is it the call I'm seeking?)
"Lucky for you if you hear it at all
For my trumpet's but faint in speakin',
I'm callin' 'em home! Come home! Come home!
Tread light o'er the dead in the valley,
Who are lyin' around face down to the ground,
And they can't hear me sound the 'Rally'.
But they'll hear it again in a grand refrain,
When Gabriel sounds the last 'Rally'.

The closing hymn is O God of Love, O King of Peace (1861) to the tune of Rockingham. I had a link for the hymn text, but Google Chrome just annihilated it.

Click here to hear: The Trumpeter (Barron-Dix)--Raymond Newell (1929)

Lee