1813 - 1879 Person Name: Henry Smart Topics: Adoption; Adoration; Angels; Anger of God Restrained; Christ Atonement of; Christ Glorying in; Christ Grace and Love of; Christ The Saviour; Christ Worshiped; Christians Saved by Grace; Comfort in Trials; Contentment; Covenant Promises; Deliverance From Sin; Faith Confession of; Family; Godly Fear Blessedness of; God Adored and Exalted; God Attributes of; God Compassion of ; God Fatherhood of; God Goodness of; God Kingly Character of; God Love and Mercy; Gospel Freeness of ; Gospel Fulness of ; Grace Justifying; Grace Redeeming; Life Brevity and Uncertainty of; Lord's Supper; Man Mortal and Frail; Mercy of God Great; Pardon Set Forth; Parents and Children; Praise By Universe; Praise Calls to; Praise For God's Mercy; Praise For Spiritual Blessings; Praise For Work of Redemption; Royalty of Christ Universal Domain of; Salvation From Sin and Trouble; Thanksgiving Declared Composer of "PILGRIMS" in The Psalter Henry Smart (b. Marylebone, London, England, 1813; d. Hampstead, London, 1879), a capable composer of church music who wrote some very fine hymn tunes (REGENT SQUARE, 354, is the best-known).
Smart gave up a career in the legal profession for one in music. Although largely self taught, he became proficient in organ playing and composition, and he was a music teacher and critic. Organist in a number of London churches, including St. Luke's, Old Street (1844-1864), and St. Pancras (1864-1869), Smart was famous for his extemporizations and for his accompaniment of congregational singing. He became completely blind at the age of fifty-two, but his remarkable memory enabled him to continue playing the organ. Fascinated by organs as a youth, Smart designed organs for important places such as St. Andrew Hall in Glasgow and the Town Hall in Leeds. He composed an opera, oratorios, part-songs, some instrumental music, and many hymn tunes, as well as a large number of works for organ and choir. He edited the Choralebook (1858), the English Presbyterian Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and the Scottish Presbyterian Hymnal (1875). Some of his hymn tunes were first published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).
Bert Polman
Henry Thomas Smart