Recorded in Secret Ninja Studios with the help of Jesse Hellen-Lloyd.
Rachel St. Marseille on vox.
Steve Blum on piano.
Nicole Sequeira on bass.
Eric Hagstrom on drums.
Written for the Homestuck album contest with the character Snowman in mind.

Your Universe

The Lass That Loves A Sailor
Composed by Marcus Carline for SATB choir, a cappella
Text by Charles Dibdin and Marcus Carline, with optional text to alter the genders of the characters in the text.


Fare thee away to the ocean, my sweetheart,
Fare thee away to the sea.
May the winds carry you quick as they do far,
And the tides — bring my love back to me:
A kind-hearted man who does what he can
(A kind-hearted girl who’d promise the world)
That worry never should ail her (him).
With a bleary eye, a song goodbye
To the wind that blows,
The ship that goes,
From the lass (lad) that loves a sailor!

  The moon on the ocean was dimmed by a ripple
  Affording a chequered delight;
  The gay jolly tars passed a word for the tipple,
  And the toast — for 'twas Saturday night:
  Some sweetheart or wife he loved as his life
  (Some husband or lad he/she loved as if mad)
  Each drank, and wished he (she) could hail her (him):
  But the standing toast that pleased the most
  Was "The wind that blows,
  The Ship that goes,
  And the lass (lad) that loves a sailor!”

Far and away where the waves come together
Beating their thunderous song
Roiling white sea foam cared not for the tethered
And the winds— for ten nights they blew on:
The bottomless deep their souls would now keep
With Neptune their watery jailer.
Between bow and stern, they'd ne’er return
To the wind that blows,
The ship that goes,

Or the lass (lad) that loved a sailor!
Fare thee away to the ocean, my sweetheart,
Fare thee away to the sea.
May the winds carry you quick as they do far,
And the tides— bring my love back to me:
A kind-hearted man who does what he can
(A kind-hearted girl who’d promise the world)
That worry never should ail her (him).
With a bleary eye, a song goodbye
To the wind that blows,
The ship that goes,
From the lass (lad) that loves a sailor!
- Marcus Carline
2nd Stanza from The Lass That Loves a Sailor!
by Charles Dibdin

The Lass That Loves A Sailor

Ships That Pass In The Night
Composed by Marcus Carline for SATB choir with piano
Text by Paul Laurence Dunbar


Out in the sky the great dark clouds are massing;
  I look far out into the pregnant night,
Where I can hear a solemn booming gun
  And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.

My tearful eyes my soul's deep hurt are glassing;
  For I would hail and check that ship of ships.
I stretch my hands imploring, cry aloud,
  My voice falls dead a foot from mine own lips,
And but its ghost doth reach that vessel, passing, passing.

O Earth, O Sky, O Ocean, both surpassing,
  O heart of mine, O soul that dreads the dark!
Is there no hope for me? Is there no way
  That I may sight and check that speeding bark
Which out of sight and sound is passing, passing?

Ships That Pass In The Night

The Slave Auction
Composed by Marcus Carline for SATB choir, a cappella
Text is an anonymous anti-slavery song


The Slave Auction--A Fact
Why stands she near the auction stand,
That girl so young and fair;
What brings her to this dismal place,
Why stands she weeping there?
Why does she raise that bitter cry?
Why hangs her head with shame,
As now the auctioneer's rough voice,
So rudely calls her name?
But see! she grasps a manly hand,
And in a voice so low,
As scarcely to be heard, she says,
'My brother, must I go?'
A moment's pause: then midst a wail
Of agonizing woe,
His answer falls upon the ear,
'Yes, sister, you must go!'

'No longer can my arm defend,
No longer can I save
My sister from the horrid fate
That waits her as a SLAVE!'
Ah! now I know why she is there,
She came there to be sold!
That lovely form, that noble mind,
Must be exchanged for gold!
O God! my every heart-string cries,
Dost thou these scenes behold
In this our boasted Christian land,
And must the truth be told?
Blush, Christian, blush! for e'en the dark
Untutored heathen see
Thy inconsistency, and lo!
They scorn thy God, and thee!

The Slave Auction

The Farm House by the River
Composed by Marcus Carline for SATB choir, a cappella
Text by Paul Laurence Dunbar


I know a little country place
            Where still my heart doth linger,
And o'er its fields is every grace
            Lined out by memory's finger.
Back from the lane where poplars grew
            And aspens quake and quiver,
There stands all bath'd in summer's glow
            A farm house by the river.

Its eaves are touched with golden light
            So sweetly, softly shining,
And morning glories full and bright
            About the doors are twining.
And there endowed with every grace
            That nature's hand could giver her,
There lived the angel of the place
            In the farm house by the river.

Her eyes were blue, her hair was gold,
            Her face was bright and sunny;
The songs that from her bosom rolled
            Were sweet as summer's honey.
And I loved her well, that maid divine,
            And I prayed the Gracious Giver,
That I some day might call her mine
            In the farm house by the river.

Twas not to be -- but God knows best.
            His will for aye be heeded!
Perhaps amid the angels' bliss,
            My little love was needed.
Her spirit from its thralldom torn
            Went singing o'er the river,
And that sweet life my heart shall mourn
            Forever and forever.

She dies one morn at early light
            When all the birds are singing,
And Heaven itself in pure delight
            Its bells of joy seemed ringing.
They laid her dust where soon and late
            The solemn grasses quiver,
And left alone and desolate
            The farm house by the river.

The Farm House by the River

Wood Song
Composed by Marcus Carline for SSSAAA choir, a cappella
Text by Sara Teasdale

I heard a wood-thrush in the dusk
Twirl three notes and make a star-
My heart that walked with bitterness
Came back from very far.

Three shining notes were all he had,
And yet they made a starry call-
I caught life back against my breast
And kissed it, scars and all.

Wood Song

The Hummingbird
Composed by Marcus Carline for SA choir and piano
Text by Hermann Hagedorn

Through tree-top and clover a-whirr and away!
Hi! little rover, stop and stay.

Merry, absurd, excited wag—
Lilliput-bird in Brobdingnag!

Wild and free as the wild thrush, and warier—
Was ever a bee merrier, airier?

Wings folded so, a second or two—
Was ever a crow more solemn than you?

A-whirr again over the garden, away!
Who calls, little rover? Bird or fay?

Agleam and aglow, incarnate bliss!
What do you know that we humans miss?

In the lily's chalice, what rune, what spell,
In the rose's palace, what do they tell

(When the door you bob in, airily)
That they hush from the robin, hide from the bee?—

Fearing the crew of chatter and song,
And tell to you of the chantless tongue?

Chantless! Ah, yes. Is that the sting
Masked in gay dress and whirring wing?

Faith! But a wing of such airy stuff!
What need to sing? Here's music enough.

A-whirr, and over tree-top, and through!
Hi little rover fair travel to you.

Sweet, absurd, excited wag—
Lilliput-bird in Brobdingnag!

The Hummingbird

He Falls
Composed by Marcus Carline for SSAA choir, a cappella
Text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt, he falls.

He Falls

Yours/Mine
Composed by Marcus Carline for SATB choir, a cappella
Choreography by Casey Gonzalez
Premiere Performance by C3LA and Iris Dance Company

Yours/Mine

Windflower Leaf
Composed by Marcus Carline for TTBB choir, a cappella
Text by Carl Sandburg

This flower is repeated
out of old winds, out of
old times.

The wind repeats these, it
must have these, over and
over again.

Oh, windflowers so fresh,
Oh, beautiful leaves, here
now again.

The domes over
fall to pieces.
The stones under
fall to pieces.
Rain and ice
wreck the works.
The wind keeps, the windflowers
keep, the leaves last,
The wind young and strong lets
these last longer than stones.

Windflower Leaf

Till There Was You by Meredith Willson, arr. by Marcus Carline
Performed by CSULB's Pacific Standard Time

Till There Was You

Composer/Singer currently performing with CAI, C3LA, LAEE, and Westbeat. marcuscarline.com

mCarline

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