Chester Greenough Allen

Chester Greenough Allen was born in Westford, New York, in 1838. The documentary record is much thinner than it is for Fanny Crosby, but contemporary music publishing identifies him as a teacher, composer, compiler, and music writer. He worked during the rapid expansion of American school music and Sunday school song, fields in which clear melodies and practical collections brought music to large numbers of children and amateur singers.

Allen compiled or edited sacred and educational music and, in 1873, succeeded Theodore F. Seward as editor of the New York Musical Gazette. The 1869 first edition of Bright Jewels for the Sunday School names him among the musicians assisting editor Robert Lowry and prints Allen's melody with Crosby's hymn. Later hymnals commonly identify that tune as JOYFUL SONG. This original pairing, rather than a later hymnal match, is Allen's best-known contribution to Christian song. Allen's denominational affiliation remains undocumented in reliable biographical references and is therefore left unspecified.