Joseph Smith

Sir, - It may interest some of your readers to learn that the hymn tune "Innocents" was composed by my grandfather, Joseph Smith, of Halesowen, near Birmingham (born 1800; died 1873).

I well remember hearing my grandfather say that he wrote the tune at the request of a lady friend, to the words "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" to be sung by the children of her school.

My grandfather was a thorough musician and an excellent singer, though he never practised professionally. He knew the whole of the Psalms from memory, and it used to be one of my greatest pleasures, when, as a child, I visited my grandparents, to sit up after the usual bedtime hour and listen to him as he sang, in his sweet tenor voice, one Psalm after another, to music he would extemporise, and play upon his cabinet organ, the room being in total darkness.

Joseph Smith, Organist and Choirmaster of St. Paul's Church, San Diego, California, March 23, 1901; excerpted from The musical times and singing class circular, Vol 42, 1901 (London: Novello and Company, Ltd.)