• Solemn occasions

  Former Cyclone drum major continues playing music.

  
  
• Take a few steps outside David Artley's office and you see rows and rows of white crosses in Arlington National Cemetery.
  
  Artley ('84 music) spends more time than he would like in Arlington National Cemetery these days.
  
  A trumpet player in the U.S. Army Band stationed at adjacent Fort Meyer in the Washington D.C. suburb of Arlington, Va., Artley is also one of 34 soldiers who double as buglers.
  
  "The Army Band does around 4000 funerals a year," said Artley, who is an Army master sergeant. "About three-fourths of those funerals are attended by just buglers."
  
  Artley has played "Taps" at several funerals in Arlington. With World War II veterans growing older the funerals have increased.
  
  "Causalities from the Iraqi War have also been buried in Arlington," he said. "Obviously the funerals of young people have a different emotional impact than others."
  
  One of Artley's Army duties is the music coordinator for all state funerals. Fortunately he hadn't had to perform any in the eight years that he has held that responsibility until President Ronald Reagan died earlier this year.
  
  Artley says a template is developed for each state funeral with the families and former presidents expressing their wishes for the services.
  
  The plans for President Reagan's funeral have been in place since 1989.
  
  "The basic template for the funeral and other state funerals doesn't change," Artley said. "But some of the details do. Every time the casket moved there was music involved."
  
  There were nine different military bands involved during the Reagan funeral. In any joint operations, the Army takes the lead. Artley coordinated the activities of the different military bands and civilian performers.
  
  "When President Kennedy was buried they literally made it up as they went," he said. "The military decided to start putting planning processes together for future state funerals."
  
  Despite having a template in place, Artley said the Reagan family changed music throughout the weeklong activities around the funeral.
  
  "We were making musical changes the day before the internment," he said. "Not only do we have to find the music, there are copyright issues and then we have to get the music out to the various bands.
  
  "We knew the Reagan funeral would be a world event and we knew we had to be at our best."
  
  The Army Band is one of three premiere bands in the U.S. Army. It consists of 260 musicians and includes a concert band, ceremonial band, big band, string orchestra, chorus and pop vocal group.
  
  On any given day, the Army Band can perform at funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, play at an officer's retirement, or give a summer concert on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
  
  Artley, who has been a member of the Army Band for the past 10 years, says he has played at the recent dedication ceremonies for Washington's World War II Memorial and at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.
  
  He also serves as the Army Band's assistant drum major, a position he has experience at, after serving as the drum major for the Cyclone Marching Band in 1982 and 1983. In his Army role Artley conducts the ceremonial band at funerals and other special events.
  
  "The thought that I would be a professional drum major never crossed my mind back in Ames," Artley said.
  
  Not all of Artley's duties are totally solemn occasions. As a member of the Army's Herald Trumpets, he has had the opportunity to play at countless arrivals of dignitaries at the White House.
  
  In the current Bush administration, the Herald Trumpets play on the White House balcony.
  
  "We (the Herald Trumpets) literally have to step aside to allow the President and the other dignitaries by when they come up on the balcony for a photo op," he said. "It's been a real neat experience.'
  
  Artley says he owes a lot of what he has accomplished to Joe Christiansen, former Iowa State band director who died a few years ago.
  
  "He was truly a great influence on my life," Artley said. "He made such a great impact on me and countless others in the band both musically and personally."
  
  One of those individuals is Artley's wife Andrea (Andrews) Artley, who attended Iowa State for two years in the early 1980s. Andrea is the principal flute player in the Army Band.

• David Artley
  
  Music Today
  Fall 2004

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