(Fr. Retraite; Ger. Zapfenstreich: ‘Strike Tap’; It. Ritirata).
A term now applied to a military display or presentation to which the public is admitted. It originally referred to the summoning of soldiers back to their barracks for the final roll call of the day, and derives from the daily routine of the 17th-century mercenary armies which fought in the Thirty Years War. The armies were followed by entrepreneurs, or ‘sutlers’, who attached themselves to one particular regiment or brigade, selling food and drink to the soldiers (Brecht’s Mother Courage was one such). At sunset a drumbeat signal, the ‘Retreat’, recalled the strolling or foraging soldiers to their camp, where they were wont to congregate round the sutlers’ tents or wagons. Left to themselves, the soldiers would happily carouse the night away, with dire consequences the next morning, so at a set time the provost guard – the military police of the day – would tour the sutlers’ premises, preceded by a drummer and fifer to warn of their approach. The taps of the liquor barrels were turned off (‘Tap To’), the bungs were hammered home by the provost guard (‘Strike Tap’) and a cross was chalked over them to make sure they were not extracted again. A soldier found out of his billet thereafter was liable to severe punishment. The procedure is mentioned in a German regulation dated 1672 and is also described in military handbooks published in 1726 and 1727. By the 19th century all troops in the British Army were accommodated in barracks. The process of calling the roll, or accounting for the soldiers, began at 9.30 p.m. with the sounding of the bugle call ‘Tattoo: First Post’. The drums and fifes then played a sequence of music ending with the national anthem, after which the bugle call ‘Tattoo: Last Post’ was sounded. These bugle calls represented the tours of sentry posts, which took place every night and were known as ‘Rounds’.
Tattoo remained an essentially domestic military routine until the elaboration of the simple ceremony into a major military musical spectacle by Wilhelm Wieprecht, director of music to the Prussian Guard Corps, first performed in 1838. Since 1813 the Prussian Zapfenstreich had included a pause for prayer, following the example of the Russian and Austrian armies. Wieprecht represented this religious element by the hymn St Petersburg by Dmitry Bortnyansky, still part of the ceremony played by the bands of the Bundeswehr. A performance of the augmented ceremony, ‘Grosser Zapfenstreich’, involving all musical resources, bands, drums, fife and trumpets, was staged for Queen Victoria at Cologne in 1845. By the end of the 19th century an almost identical ceremony, the Grand Military Tattoo, was taking place in the British Army, and this too included an evening hymn, usually Abide with me. After World War I the Grand Military Tattoo was expanded into a major public attraction, including action items as well as performances by massed bands. After World War II these events gradually disappeared, leaving the Edinburgh Military Tattoo as the only one to survive to the present in the British Isles, although similar events are frequently held in the Commonwealth countries. ‘Der Grosse Zapfenstreich’ is also performed occasionally in Germany, while in France there are also spectacles of a similar nature by military bands, some in costume playing French military music of the 18th century. With the progressive rationalization of military discipline since World War II, Tattoo has lost its significance and the ceremony has now entirely lapsed. However, a verse from Lili Marlene, sung by both sides in World War II, shows that in the German as well as the British Army it still had at that time a part to play in the soldier’s daily life: ‘Schon rief der Posten, sie blasen Zapfenstreich, Es kann drei tagen kosten, Kamerad ich komm’ sogleich!’
The Compleat Tutor for the Fife (London, c1760)
The Young Drummer’s Assistant (London, 1785)
Drum and Flute Duty (London, 1887)
J. Toeche-Mittler: Armeemärsche, i (Neckargemünd, 1971)
D.J.S. MURRAY