John Clifford Heed

By the time he reached the age of 17 he was the leader of this band and he had mastered with astonishing rapidity the intricacies of harmony and counterpoint.

Heed went with John Philip Sousa's band as a soloist and arranger before contracting tuberculosis in the 1890s and dying in Newark, New Jersey on February 12, 1908.

According to local legend in Hackettstown, New Jersey it is claimed that it was Heed who actually wrote for Sousa his great masterpiece: "The Stars and Stripes Forever".

Heed's best known works include the marches In Storm and Sunshine, Regimental Pride, Metronome Prize, Clipper, The Rouser, and General Miles.

He is occasionally referred to as the "March Wizard" by Carl Fischer, one of America's oldest music houses and who published Mr.