Hyperion Records

During his lifetime, the Scottish poet and preacher Walter Chalmers Smith (1824–1908) wrote much verse including the sacred poem Immortal, invisible, God only wise. Smith studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1841. He then entered the Ministry and became a Free Church minister in Glasgow and Edinburgh between 1862 and 1894. A collection of his works was published in 1902.

The version of the tune ‘St Denio’ in use today was adapted from a Welsh song set to a hymn in John Roberts’ Caniadau y Cussegre, a collection of hymns published in 1839. John Roberts (1822–1877), a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist preacher, had a great influence on Welsh musical life, introducing the music of Bach, Handel and Mendelssohn to Welsh choirs and also a number of German chorale tunes.

from notes by Sarah Langdon © 1999