Autumn Song

This is a post that has been incubating for a short while, but coming into Thanksgiving week seemed the appropriate time to put it in print.

It goes back to a Nautilus Rough Cuts performance I saw a few weeks back. If you are not familiar with this series, it allows both performers and composers to workshop new material in various stages before a small studio audience for feedback. The source material is all over the boards and our cabaret work would fit very well with much of what is featured.

Tennessee Williams

This particular run showcased Autumn Song - a song cycle well underway by George Maurer that looks at the poetry of both Tennessee Williams and Rainer Maria Rilke. It has been tailored for the incredible talents of both Dieter Bierbauer & Jared Oxborough with a small chamber ensemble. This summer it was part of the Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown where he is revered. The premise sets William's reflecting on mentor Rilke and has moments of the elder inspiring the work of the latter. George's music is lyrical, unique, romantic and unpredictable. And the two men are lovely to both hear and watch. George said that even though the piece was fully realized there, he has had requests to dig deeper into the catalogue of Williams poetry, and this reading was premiering two of the newer works in the cycle.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Please keep ears open for a future local staging of this when it finally comes to fruition. It is beautiful material and needs to be heard and seen.