December Songs is a song cycle by Maury Yeston, best known as a musical theatre composer-lyricist responsible for the music and lyrics for Nine, Titanic,"Phantom", and part of Grand Hotel. The work is a 'retelling' of Franz Schubert's Winterreise, (a song cycle of art songs), with a cabaret sensibility. The songs in both December Songs and Winterreise are linked as a sequence of reflections by the singer taking a lonely walk in winter, thinking back on his or her lost love. The piece crosses over the line from classical music to Broadway to cabaret.
The work was written as a commissioned piece for the 1991 centennial celebration of New York's Carnegie Hall, where it was performed by cabaret singer Andrea Marcovicci. It was then performed for three months in 2004 at the Theatre du Renard in Paris, where it was sung by Isabelle Georges. It has been recorded in English by Marcovicci, Georges and Harolyn Blackwell, in German by Pia Douwes, with a German translation by Wolfgang Adenberg, in Polish by Edyta Krzemien, also in English by Hetty Sponselee and Sheila Conolly, and in French by Georges. Two time Tony nominee Laura Osnes recently featured 'December Songs' in her 54 Below debut 'Laura Osnes sings Maury Yeston' and on her album 'If I Tell You'.
The December Songs have been performed worldwide including France, the UK, Germany, and Poland.