'Nearer, My God, to Thee' on hammered dulcimer by Timothy Seaman

http://www.timothyseaman.com/ Last week for Lorraine's memorial service (which turned out to take place on her 100th birthday!) I prepared this arrangement of the widely loved 19th Century hymn. The arrangement pointedly follows the ideas of the text, which discusses closeness to God in terms of Jacob's dream at Bethel in Genesis 28, in which he sees angels going up and down stairs from Heaven. Note the ending: the hammers ascend the stairs all the way from the bottom to the top of the instrument!

This 1856 tune is by Lowell Mason.

The 1841 words by Sarah Adams:

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 Thou sendest me in mercy giv'n;
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, upwards I fly,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!