[Ads-l] "face the music" etymology (?)

[Wilson Gray]

In the Army, under certain conditions, you're obligated to "(turn to) face
the music." The "music," in this case, is the sound of the bugle-call, To
the Colors. There's a little ceremony WRT the lowering of the flag at the
end of the military work-day. The bugle-call, Retreat, is sounded. As soon
as you hear the beginning of the opening note, if you're not "under cover,"
you immediately assume the position of attention. Retreat is followed by
the bugle-call, To the Colors, at which point, you turn to face the flag -
the "colors" - and render a hand salute to the colors. If you can't see the
flag from where you are, then you must (turn to) face the music - face the
direction that you hear the bugle-call coming from.

On Fri, Jul 10, 2020 at 4:57 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> Many explanations of "face the music" have been offered, and the meaning
> and application of the phrase may have become more broad over time, but an
> origin solution may have been in effect staring us in the face.
> The face seems less problematic than the music. Face: meet, encounter,
> confront, engage (come to Limerick, etc.). But what music? Stage fright
> while facing a pit orchestra? Hear some Mozart? Dance? Calm a horse next to
> a marching band? Being drummed out of the corps for cowardice? All unlikely.
> The sense of face the music, in early use --reported on ads-l from 1834 in
> the US--is a call to be brave.
> Many dictionaries report an earlier, outlier, jarring meaning for music:
> gunfire, battle sounds.
> Early uses of the phrase encourage joining the noisy fray, originally
> military, then also political and others, eventually, in later use, also
> taking punishment for some past act.
> Examples already reported seem to support this development.
> ?
> Stephen
>
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>


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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