From that first traumatic remembrance service at 11am on 11th November 1919, the last post continues to be played to end the two minute silence, most famously at The Cenotaph. Alwyn Turner considers the history of the bugle, the music and the part it plays in creating a memorial to the fallen.
The Last Post Music, Remembrance and the Great War Synopsis
At eleven o'clock on the morning of the 11th November 1919 the entire British Empire came to a halt to remember the dead of the Great War. During that first two-minute silence all transport stayed still, all work ceased and millions stood motionless in the streets. The only human sound to be heard was the desolate weeping of those overcome by grief. Then the moment was brought to an end by the playing of the Last Post. A century on, that lone bugle call remains the most emotionally charged piece of music in public life. In an increasingly secular society, it is the closest thing we have to a sacred anthem. Yet along with the poppy, the Cenotaph and the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, its power is profoundly modern. It is a response to the trauma of war that could only have evolved in a democratic age. In this moving exploration of the Last Post's history, Alwyn W. Turner considers the call's humble origins and shows how its mournful simplicity reached beyond class, beyond religion, beyond patriotism to speak directly to peoples around the world. Along the way he contemplates the relationship between history and remembrance, and seeks out the legacy of the First World War in today's culture.
Alwyn W. Turner is the author of Crisis? What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s and Rejoice! Rejoice! Britain in the 1980s, both published by Aurum Press. An acclaimed writer on post-war British culture, his other books include The Biba Experience, Halfway to Paradise: The Birth of British Rock and My Generation: The Glory Years of British Rock.
