National Emblem: Study score

It is believed Bagley started composing National Emblem in 1902 while on a train tour with his band, but was dissatisfied with its ending and threw the score out. Fortunately, some members of his band (the Keene, New Hampshire, City Band) retrieved it and secretly rehearsed the score in the baggage car, surprising him with a performance of the work in their next concert. Bagley later revised the work and it was first published in 1906. It has since appeared in more than one dozen published editions. The first recording of it was made in 1908 by the band of Arthur Pryor, on the Victor Talking Machine Company label.

National Emblem, which features an excerpt of The Star Spangled Banner, deservedly became the most famous of Bagley's marches and remains a standard of the American march repertoire. It is widely played in Independence Day celebrations, and is used by the US military for presenting and retiring the colors. John Philip Sousa, when asked to name the three most effective street marches ever written named two of his own works as the first two, and National Emblem as the third.

This new edition by Richard W. Sargeant Jr. remains true to the composer's original orchestration, omitting the bloated extra instrumentation which was inserted by publishers over the years. As with the others in this series, it is designed to offer band directors and others interested in this genre newly engraved authoritative editions prepared from the primary sources using the composer's original instrumentation, which is sometimes markedly different from that found in bands today.

Wind Band ; ISMN: 979-0-58042-036-7