Jessie Seymour Irvine

Jessie Seymour Irvine was a Scottish amateur musician associated with the hymn tune CRIMOND. Born at Dunnottar in Kincardineshire in 1836, she was the daughter of the Rev. Alexander Irvine, a Church of Scotland minister who served at Dunnottar, Peterhead, and Crimond. Hymnary and later biographical sources describe her as receiving organ training in Banff. She died in Aberdeen in 1887.

CRIMOND first appeared in print in “The Northern Psalter and Hymn Tune Book” in 1872, where it was credited to Aberdeen musician and businessman David Grant, not to Irvine. In 1911, Irvine's sister Anna wrote that Jessie had composed the melody and that Grant had harmonized it. Other people connected with the original publication later disputed that recollection, and twentieth-century hymnologists have argued both sides. Modern hymnals often credit Irvine, sometimes with Grant as harmonizer or co-attributed contributor, but the authorship cannot be regarded as completely settled.

The tune's later fame came largely from its association with the Scottish Psalter version of Psalm 23. That pairing was popularized in the twentieth century, especially through the Glasgow Orpheus Choir and the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten.