Jesse B. Aikin

Jesse Bowman Aikin (1808–1900) was a shape note "singing master", and compiler of the shape note tunebook The Christian Minstrel. Aikin was the first to produce a song book with a seven-shape note system. He vigorously defended his "invention" and his patent, which included the elimination of bass and treble clefs and the simplification of time signatures. The note shapes used in Aikin's Christian Minstrel eventually became the prevailing standard in shape note music publication, although few other compilers adopted his other innovations. This owes much to the influential Ruebush & Kieffer Publishing Company adopting Aikin's system around 1876.

Aikin was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania and lived on a farm in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Church of the Brethren.

Aikin's shapes

See also

• New Harp of Columbia

References

• Sing with Understanding, by Harry Eskew and Hugh McElrath, Broadman Press.
• White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, by George Pullen Jackson, University of North Carolina Press, 1933.
• "Jesse B. Aikin and The Christian Minstrel", by Paul G. Hammond, American Music, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Winter, 1985), pp. 442-451.

External links

• The Christian Minstrel (1858)