Aikin, J. B. The Christian Minstrel: A New System of Musical Notation; with a collection of Psalm Tunes, Anthems, and Chants, selected from the Most Popular Works in Europe and America. Designed for the use of Churches, Singing-Schools, and Societies. Philadelphia &c.: T. K. Collins, Jr. &c., 1856. Eighty-Second Edition. [10351]
Leather spine with printed paper over card, front board nearly detached, back joint cracked and holding, covers scuffed & soiled. Oblong 15 x 25 cm (6 x 9 3/4 inches), lacks the front free end papers. Large (6 x 8 1/4 inches) chromolithograph advert card for Cottage Shirting, Newburyport, Mass., pasted inside front. Small bookseller's ticket, "Murray & Stoek, Cheap Book Store, Kramph's Building's [sic], Lancaster" also on front paste-down. 416 pp., complete text. Text has foxing but is otherwise good with no missing or torn leaves. Good. Hardcover.
Seven-note shape-note system.
Jesse Bowman Aikin (1808–1900), b. Chester Co., PA, a farmer by trade and a member of the Church of the Brethren. He became a "singing master" and was the first person to produce a successful song book in the seven-shape note system, entitled The Christian Minstrel. The book went through as many as 171 editions (Jackson, White Spirituals, p. 320).
"He vigorously defended his 'invention' and his patent, which included the elimination of bass and treble clefs and the simplification of time signatures. After the influential Ruebush & Kieffer Publishing Company began using his notehead shapes around 1876 (previously they used Funk's shapes), the Aikin shapes eventually became the prevailing standard in shape note and gospel music publication, although few other compilers adopted his other innovations." - wikipedia.
