Closer, my God, to you

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Closer, my God, to you
Title page from 1881
The angel ladder , Michael Lukas Leopold Willmann , around 1691

Closer, my God, to you is a Christian chant based on the poem Nearer, My God, to Thee by the English poet Sarah Flower Adams from 1841. The poem was set to music using various melodies, the best known being Bethany by Lowell Mason . The chant is often sung or played at funerals , especially in the English-speaking world .

The biblical background of the text is the story of Jacob's dream of the ladder to heaven in Genesis . Jakob has gone to sleep on a stone and experiences strengthening in severe distress through the dream vision. He calls the place Bet-El (Bethel), House of God ( Gen 28.10–19  EU ).

Text and melody

Closer, my God, to you in the German-language hymn book of the Mennonites of North America 1890
Most popular melody version today

English original text and German adaptation:

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone.
Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, my God to Thee.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

There let the way appear, steps unto Heav'n;
All that you send me, in mercy given;
Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

Then, with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise;
So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

Or, if on joyful wing cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upward I'll fly,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
 - - -
There in my Father's home, safe and at rest,
There in my Savior's love, perfectly blest;
Age after age to be, nearer my God to Thee.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

Closer, my God, to you, closer to you!
If grief expresses me here too, I am threatened,
despite the cross and pain this should be my watchword :
Closer, my god, to you,
closer to you!

If night falls on me, like Jacob there,
I find only a stone to rest,
even in dreams my longing for and for:
Closer, my god, to you,
closer to you!

Even if the narrow path goes up very steeply, it
leads heavenward to our salvation.
Angels, so light and beautiful, wave from blessed heights:
Closer, my god, to you,
closer to you!

When the night is over, the sun shines,
I rededicate myself to you in front of your throne,
build my Bet-El for you and cheer with joy here:
Closer, my god, to you,
closer to you!

If your way here
is completely veiled , only my wish will be fulfilled: closer to you!
Then when my pilgrimage closes, I open up happily:
Closer, my god, to you,
closer to you!
 - - -
(In English-language songbooks, a 6th verse, composed
by the Anglican Bishop of Exeter Edward Henry Bickersteth
(1825–1906), is added.)

With the German adaptation of Ehrhardt Friedrich Wunderlich (1875), the song was included in the list of common hymns of the working group for ecumenical songs . It is contained in several free church hymn books and in the EC regional parts of Baden and Palatinate , as well as in song books for funeral ceremonies. In 2013 it was included in the new Catholic prayer and hymn book praise of God under the number 502 as a funeral song under the heading "Death and Perfection", although there is so far no broad tradition among German Catholics:

\ relative c '' {\ key f \ major a2 g4 f f4. d8 d2 c f4 a g2. r4 a2 g4 f f4. d8 d2 c4 _ ([f4]) eg f2. r4 c'2 d4 c c4. a8 c2 c2 d4 c c4. a8 g2 a2 g4 f f4. d8 d2 c4 _ ([f]) eg f1 \ bar "|."} \ addlyrics {Near - er, my God, to Thee, near - er to Thee! E'en though it be a cross that rais - eth me, Still all my song shall be, near - er, my God, to Thee. Near - er, my God, to Thee, Near - er to Thee!} \ Addlyrics {Closer, my God to you, closer to you! If I feel grief here too, I am threatened, but despite the cross and pain, this should be my solution: closer, my God to you, closer to you !}

history

The poet Sarah Flower Adams (drawing from 1834)
The composer Lowell Mason

The Unitarian Sarah Flower Adams contributed a total of 13 poems to William Johnson Fox 's Hymns and Anthems , published in 1841 , including Nearer, my God, to Thee . Like Adams' poems in general, the text is in an exalted style of late romanticism that was fashionable at the time of its creation , which contemporaries ridiculed as "spasmodic" and which was already forgotten shortly after the mid-19th century. The chorale is by far the best known work of Adam to this day.

The song was set to music for Hymns and Anthems with a melody by the poet's sister. Edward Henry Bickersteth Jr. A sixth stanza was added to the chorale in the United States with the melody Bethany (1856, after the biblical place Bethanien ) by the American church musician Lowell Mason and in Great Britain with the melody Horbury (1861) by John Bacchus Dykes . In Mason's form, it became one of the most popular funeral songs in the English-speaking world. He experienced numerous other settings and was soon translated into many different languages ​​or retouched.

Fall of the Titanic (1912)
Illustration by Willy Stöwer for the magazine Die Gartenlaube

The chorale and in particular Mason's melody Bethany gained particular fame and the most frequent associations in connection with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912: As the favorite piece of its conductor Wallace Hartley , it is said to have been played by the band as the last song when the ship went down. At least four of the films made about the disaster - Titanic (1943), Sinking of the Titanic (1953), The Last Night of the Titanic (1958) and Titanic (1997) - follow this description.

The song was intoned in the USA in honor of the murdered Presidents James A. Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley , whose last words are said to have been the beginning of the song, in 1901 and at Gerald Ford's funeral in 2007. The song's opening line can also be found on a memorial to the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 plane crash , in which 16 passengers survived 72 days in arctic Andean temperatures before being rescued on December 23, 1972.

When the channel was founded , the founder of the US news broadcaster CNN , Ted Turner , announced that CNN would stay on the air until the end of the world, broadcast it and play this chorale immediately before the final shutdown. In January 2015, a video was actually made public showing a military band playing Nearer, my God, to Thee in front of Turner Mansion, the founding place of CNN, and which is allegedly kept in the station's archives for this event.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Text version of the working group for ecumenical songs
  2. ↑ https://www.life-is-more.at/texte_titanic_letztes_lied.html
  3. ↑ https://news.avclub.com/cnn-s-doomsday-video-leaks-to-the-internet-1798275220

literature

  • Louis F. Benson: Studies of Familiar Hymns. First series. Westminster Press, Philadelphia 1926, pp. 117 ff.
  • Harold William Stephenson: The Author of “Nearer, my God, to Thee” - Sarah Flower Adams. Lindsey Press, London 1922.
  • The Religious Tract Society (Ed.): Hymns: German and English - Some English spiritual songs. London 1862, p. 112ff. ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Closer, my God, to you  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files