My bugle calls for peace ...

Sometime in the early fifties, the troubadour, Woody Guthrie wrote, Peace Call. It took over 50 years for anyone to release a recording. Eliza Gilkyson joined Mary Chapin Carpenter, Iris Dement and Patty Griffin, on Gilkyson’s 2004 album, in a sweet plaintive chorus:

Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the bugle sounding,
Roaming around my land, my city and my town;
Peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace.
I can hear the horn and voices ring louder,
While my bugle calls for peace.

The bugle developed from an animal horn blown to signal. Postmen, in some countries, blew their horn to announce mail. Norway, traditionally, had stamps issued with the posthorn pictured. But, its more stereotypical use was for communication on the battlefield. There were calls for: assembly, attention, charge, mess, retreat, reveille, taps, to arms and others. Guthrie added one for peace, one that the army had not.