Carbonado

André Rieu conducting a large orchestra and choir in an outdoor evening performance of “Nearer, My God, to Thee” before a massive crowd is deeply moving. The hymn’s spiritual origins make the performance even more powerful. Sarah Flower Adams wrote the lyrics in 1841, inspired by Jacob’s dream of a ladder reaching heaven in Genesis 28. She wrote them while nursing her seriously ill sister. The words were later paired with Lowell Mason’s popular tune, “Bethany”. Adams, a Unitarian poet who died at the age of 43, built the hymn around themes of pilgrimage, suffering and drawing closer to God. Its enduring place in cultural memory was strengthened by accounts that it was played during the sinking of the Titanic. It remains one of the most profound hymns ever written.