Il Silenzio

I wonder why it's never played entirely at a funeral. Would make a nice farewell. :p

I caught this concert on PBS a few months back. Still brings chills.

The reason you've never heard it is because this is a new composition based on "Taps", not "Taps" itself. Taps is a signal call, they are by nature brief. Mr Rieu is a great showman and needed something simple and effective to showcase the trumpet talents of this pretty little girl, so he no doubt had his arrangers come up with something using the limited range and effective intervals of that haunting call.
Here is the West Point site on the real call:

http://www.west-point.org/taps/Taps.html

Thanks H Bickers, I just knew there was more to the story! :)

The work is "Il Silenzio" by composer Nini Rosso, and was written in the mid 1960s. It's relation to the bugle call "taps" is that it (rather obviously) quotes from Taps the same way that Tchaikovsky quotes La Marseilles in his overture "1812".

Never played in it's entirety because most people have never heard of the work or the composer. But it is certainly suitable.

It's never played entirely at a funeral because Il Silenzio is an Italian trumpet tune composed in 1965, while Taps is an American military bugle call which was in use by 1885.

The two songs are different, starting to diverge at the 2nd note, even. They sound vaguely similar, but not really that close.

The strike-through edit of the original post helps a bit, but it's still misleading and probably should be completely re-written to properly describe the relationship (or lack thereof) to the actual Taps.

Not everyone will take the time to read the clarifying comments, especially if they're picking up the post via RSS feed.

Bravissima! A very rare and exceptional treat. This young lady is talented waaaay beyond her years. Thanks!

Very impressive indeed - but a bit too much vibrato for my taste.

I almost thought it was going to break out into Chuck Mangione there for a second.

And does it matter if a casual reader doesn't get the subtle difference between this piece and Taps? I'm more concerned that a casual reader will think there were monkeys walking on the moon.

~

I don't know if it's her actual playing, but i don't think she's playing live.

The Nini Rosso version is on Youtube, I'd highly recommend watching it. The song has has words,too. I heard that frequently while growing up ,my dad had picked up the record whenn he was stationed in Italy when that was composed and recorded. There were so many great Italian songs in that decade.

the reason why you don't hear this at funerals, and why you only her "TAPS"??

"Il Silenzio" was written 100 years after "TAPS" was. It is not a variation of the song at all but an entirely new composition by Nino Rosso.

Sorry to disappoint you guys.

I am away from home working in the middle east, and have just found this on the net. I have been playing this all day and my mates are loving it. Outstanding what a talent. Well done kid.

I don't understand why people can't just enjoy the piece as it is, without critiqueing it. It's beautiful and one can compare or not, it's relation to Taps.

to Scott M.
I love this melody by Nini Rosso and would love to get the words to the song or a translation of the words that are spoken in the song. Any help would be appreciated.

thank you and have a great day.

mike n.