Ruffles and flourishes are the brief musical honors—a "ruffle" played on field drums and a "flourish" sounded by bugles or trumpets—rendered immediately before the personal march or anthem of a dignitary at official ceremonies. In United States practice they are codified in Army Regulation 600-25 (Salutes, Honors, and Visits of Courtesy) and in service-specific manuals such as Air Force Instruction 34-1201 and the U.S. Navy Regulations; the underlying tradition descends from European martial custom, in which drum rolls signaled the approach of a commander and trumpet fanfares announced sovereigns. The number of ruffles and flourishes rendered—one, two, three, or four—is fixed by the rank or office of the honoree, with four being the highest honor. The practice is parallel to, but distinct from, the gun salute, and the two are frequently combined in arrival ceremonies for heads of state, heads of government, and senior military officers.
Procedurally, the honors are executed at the moment the honoree steps onto the dais, debarks an aircraft, or is received by the host. A drum major or bandmaster cues the band; the drummers execute the prescribed number of ruffles (a rapid drum roll) simultaneously with the buglers' flourishes (a sustained fanfare on natural trumpets or modern valved instruments). Each ruffle-and-flourish pair lasts approximately four seconds, and the full set is followed without pause by the honoree's signature musical piece: "Hail to the Chief" for the President of the United States, "Hail Columbia" for the Vice President, the "General's March" or "Flag Officer's March" for general and flag officers, or the national anthem for a visiting head of state. During the rendering, all uniformed personnel salute, and civilian officials place the right hand over the heart in accordance with 36 U.S.C. § 301.
The graduated scale of honors is specific. Four ruffles and flourishes are reserved for the President of the United States, the President-elect, former Presidents, foreign heads of state and reigning sovereigns, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the Chief Justice, Cabinet secretaries, state governors (within their state), the Secretaries of the military departments, and five-star generals and admirals (General of the Army, Fleet Admiral). Three ruffles and flourishes honor four-star general officers, under secretaries, and ambassadors at post. Two are rendered for major generals and rear admirals (upper half), and one for brigadier generals and rear admirals (lower half). Officers below flag rank receive no ruffles and flourishes. The convention is mirrored, with national variations, in the Commonwealth realms, France, and most NATO states.
Contemporary practice is visible at virtually every formal arrival on the South Lawn of the White House, at full-honor arrival ceremonies hosted by the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon River Entrance, and at change-of-command parades at installations such as Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall, where The U.S. Army Band ("Pershing's Own") and The President's Own Marine Band routinely render the honors. When President Joe Biden hosted French President Emmanuel Macron for a state visit in December 2022, four ruffles and flourishes preceded "La Marseillaise" and "The Star-Spangled Banner." At the funeral of General Colin Powell at Washington National Cathedral in November 2021, four ruffles and flourishes preceded the General's March in recognition of his four-star rank and prior service as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State.
Ruffles and flourishes should not be conflated with the gun salute, which is rendered by artillery batteries (21 guns for a head of state, 19 for a Cabinet secretary or four-star officer, descending by twos), nor with the honor cordon, a formation of troops through which a visitor passes. Ruffles and flourishes are also distinct from the trooping of the colour or the British royal salute, which incorporates a six-bar musical salute of different provenance. Where gun salutes mark the broader arrival and honor cordons provide the physical reception, ruffles and flourishes specifically inaugurate the musical honors and immediately precede the personal march.
Edge cases generate recurring protocol questions. A former President retains entitlement to four ruffles and flourishes and "Hail to the Chief" for life, a point reaffirmed at the state funerals of George H. W. Bush (December 2018) and Jimmy Carter (January 2025). Acting officials—an Acting Secretary of Defense, for instance—receive the honors of the office, not their substantive rank. When two entitled dignitaries arrive together, honors are rendered to the senior only. Controversy occasionally arises over honors for foreign officials whose protocol status is contested: visits by the Dalai Lama, by Taiwan's representatives, and by leaders of unrecognized governments are typically handled without the full military honors package to avoid implying recognition under customary international law.
For the working practitioner—desk officers preparing visit packages at the State Department's Office of the Chief of Protocol, defense attachés coordinating arrival ceremonies, or embassy political officers drafting reciprocity memoranda—the precise calibration of ruffles and flourishes is a tangible indicator of how a host government has chosen to characterize a visit. Upgrading or downgrading the honors signals diplomatic temperature without requiring a public statement, and reciprocity in honors is closely tracked by foreign ministries. Mastery of the convention is therefore not antiquarian knowledge but a practical tool of bilateral signaling.
Example
When President Joe Biden welcomed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit in April 2023, the U.S. Army Band rendered four ruffles and flourishes before "Aegukga" on the South Lawn.