Jessie Seymour Irvine

Jessie Seymour Irvine (1836 – 1883) was the a daughter of a parish minister who served at Dunottar, Peterhead, and Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She is referred to by Ian Campbell Bradley in his book "Abide with Me: The World of Victorian Hymns" of 1997 as standing "in a strong Scottish tradition of talented amateurs ... who tended to produce metrical psalm tunes rather than the dedicated hymn tunes increasingly composed in England".

Works

Her most famous tune is "Crimond", which is best known as one of the most popular [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A751727 BBC h2g2 Psalm 23] ] settings for the (paraphrased) words of Psalm 23: "The Lord's my shepherd". It is believed [ [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bZEmsCBkhasC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=Jessie+Irvine+%2BCrimond&source=web&ots=iDJuPHtKQJ&sig=mXcSsCwrNL2xQGlhIUy1N0PiOQw&hl=en Ian Campbell Bradley "Abide with Me"] ] to have been written when Irvine was still in her teens, as an exercise for an organ class she was attending. The tune first appeared in "The Northern Psalter" where it was credited to one David Grant, but it was subsequently learned that Grant only arranged the tune, and had not composed it. The Scottish Psalter of 1929 credits Irvine as the composer. More details on this controversy can be found in Ronald Johnson's article: "How far is it to Crimond" [Hymn Society Bulletin No 176, July 1988, page 38] and Jack Webster's column in the Glasgow Herald [Glasgow Herald 17 September 1991] .

Irvine is buried in St. Machar's Cathedral in Aberdeen [http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/i/r/irvine_js.htm] .

References

External links

* [http://www.thelordismyshepherd.co.uk/index.php?link=crimond.htm MP3 recording of The Lord's my shepherd]