Origins: Nearer My God to Thee

Subject: Nearer My God to Thee
From: GUEST,Louis Lee
Date: 29 May 01 - 12:42 AM

Would you please find me the lyric of the song Nearer My God to Thee .

Thaks a lot .

Louis Lee [e-mail]

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Lyrics sent by e-mail.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: Helen
Date: 29 May 01 - 01:06 AM

Hi Louis,

The lyrics are
here http://www.back-to-titanic.com/music/lyrics/nearer.shtml

A really good search engine to use is
Google http://www.google.com/

put the title, or any phrase you are searching for in double quotes, e.g. "nearer my God to thee".

Helen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: Genie
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 01:41 AM

If you have not found the lyrics yet, please email me at [e-mail]. [You can find the words and music in just about any Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, etc., hymnal.]

Subject: ADD: Autumn (hymn)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 04:54 AM

"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is often said to be the song played by the band on the Titanic as it went down. I don't know if that's the reason that Louis Lee was interested in it. But here is a fascinating account from a book called "The Sinking of the Titanic, and Great Sea Disasters", published in 1912, soon after the disaster:


As the vessel disappeared, the waves drowned the majestic hymn which the musicians played as they went to their watery grave. The most authentic accounts agree that this hymn was not "Nearer, My God, to Thee," which it seems had been played shortly before, but "Autumn," which is found in the Episcopal hymnal and which fits appropriately the situation on the Titanic in the last moments of pain and darkness there. One line, "Hold me up in might waters," particularly may have suggested the humn to some minister aboard th edoomed vessel, who, it has been thought, thereupon asked the remaining passengers to join in singing the hymn, in a last service aboard the sinking ship, soon to be ended by death itself.

Following is the hymn:

God of mercy and compassion!
Look with pity on my pain:
Hear a mournful, broken spirit
Prostrate at Thy feet complain;
Many are my foes, and mighty;
Strength to conquer I have none;
Nothing can uphold my goings
But Thy blessed Self alone.

Saviour, look on Thy beloved;
Triumph over all my foes;
Turn to heavenly joy my mourning,
Turn to gladness all my woes;
Live or die, or work or sufer,
Let my weary soul abide,
In all changes whatsoever
Sure and steadfast by Thy side.

When temptations fierce assault me,
When my enemies I find,
Sin and guilt, and death and Satan,
All against my soul combined,
Hold me up in mighty waters,
Keep my eyes on things above,
Righteousness, divine Atonement,
Peace, and everlasting Love.

It was the musicians of the band of the Titanic -- poor men, paid a few dollars a week -- who played the music to keep up the courage of the souls aboard the sinking ship.

"The way the band kept playing was a noble thing," says the wireless operator. "I heard it first while we were working the wireless, when there was a rag-time tune for us, and the last I saw of the band, when I was floating, struggling in the icy water, it was still on deck, playing 'Autumn.' How those brave fellows ever did it I cannot imagine."

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 09:41 AM

Thanks, Mark, that is fascinating and sent chills up my spine.

NMGTT is also sung at every Bethel meeting/ceremony of Job's Daughters, an org. for young women sponsored by the Masons. I well remember the beauty of kneeling with my fellow "Jobies", in white robes, with only candlelight and singing this beautiful hymn in our clear, sweet voices. It has a special place in my heart.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 04:17 AM

On the music played on the Titanic, J. Marshall Bevil wrote a paper "And the Band Played On: Hypotheses Concernng What Music Was Performed Near the Climax of the Titanic Disaster." It was very interesting to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: Pinetop Slim
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 12:25 PM

Geez I love the neat stuff that turns up here. Definition of thread creep: The bridge to serendipity.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 05:01 PM

Masato, that is a fascinating paper, and I think the conclusions makes perfect sense. First, "Songe d'Automne" (not the hymn "Autumn"), and then at the end a setting of "Nearer, My God, to Thee". Whatever the details, though, I agree with kat -- it is a terrifying scene to imagine. And yet, one that can give the musicians among us, I think, a small sense of pride.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 05:21 PM

If anyone is interested in the origin of "Nearer...", the music is by Lowell Mason and words by Sarah F. Adams, 1841.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 05:32 PM

Apparently stories differ and no one knows for certain what was played if anything. The evidence is the old "someone said the radio operator said..." See the site http://members.aol.com/Aravantis/titanic/som.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nearer My God to Thee
From: masato sakurai
Date: 19 Aug 01 - 10:17 AM

I thought Bevil's conclusions quite convincing. As a reference, I link to another site. In addition to Lowell Mason's familiar BETHANY tune (midi version), you can hear less familiar ones (AMERICA, HORBURY, LIVERPOOL, Arthur Sullivan's PROPIOR DEO, and ROTHWELL) here.