Amelia waltz

Amelia’s Waltz was written around 1980 by by Bob McQuillen. He named the tune for Amelia Stiles, Deanna Stiles’ daughter. Amelia was born in a famous packing crate, which carried Lindbergh’s airplane back to the US from Europe. Amelia herself was named after Amelia Earhart. At the time we were all living in the New England woods, making money however we were able and playing music as much as we could. Lindbergh’s crate was beside the Blackwater River and Deanna lived there for years. The crate is now the center of The Lindbergh Crate Museum, in Canaan, Maine.

Bob McQuillen is pretty much the dean of contradance musicians. He received a National Heritage Fellowship Award in September from the National Endowment for the Arts. McQuillen recently celebrated his 50th anniversary playing dances. Over the years he has been a member of Ralph Page’s Orchestra, the Canterbury Orchestra, New England Tradition, and other important bands. In addition, McQuillen has published ten notebooks containing the hundreds of dance tunes that he has written, many of which have become standards in the contradance repertoire.

Bob McQuillen plays now with Old New England, composed of Deanna Stiles on flute and fiddle, Jane Orzechowski on fiddle, and Bob on piano and accordion.

I was surprised this wasn’t already here, which again shows I shouldn’t take things for granted. This tune is always fitted to the flute or whistle, so here is a transcript with that in mind, and with a few other possibilities tune-wise. On the intro it can also go ~
|: FE | ~ with the final bar being a 1st & 2nd ending ~ |[1 A3 G :|[2 A4 ||
~ and following on to the end of the B-part ~ |[1 A4 :|[2 A3 G ||

K: D Major
|: (3GFE |
D3 E D2 | D2 F3 E | D2 F2 B2 | A4 FA |
B2 G3 B | (3ABA F3 E | D2 B3 ^A | B4 A2 |
D3 E D2 | D2 F2 (3EFE | D2 F3 B | A4 (3FGA |
B3 c d2 | d3 e f2 | e2 c2 A2 | A4 :|
|: ag |
f2 af af | a2 (3fgf d2 | e2 ed cB | A3 A fe |
d3 Bd (3Bcd | f3 e d2 | c2 cB AG | F4 F2 |
G2 BG BG | F2 A2 d2 | e2 c2 A2 | d3 e f2 |
g3 f e2 | a f3 d2 | d2 e3 c | d4 :|

Correction ( not A but d ):

~ and following on to the end of the B-part ~ |[1 d4 :|[2 d3 G ||

I heard this tune for the first time at Maine Fiddle Camp 2008, and it is now one of my favorite waltzes. Thanks for posting the tune. 🙂

Sara

X:1
T:Amelia
C: Bob McQuillen
Q:1/4=120
V:1
M:3/8
L:1/16
K:D major
|:A,4 |D6 E2 D4 |D4 F6 E2 |D4 F4 B4 |A8 A4 |B6 G2 B4 |
A4 F4 E4 |D4 B,6 B,2 |B,8 A,4 |D6 E2 D4 |D4 F6 E2 |D4 F4 B4 |
A8 A4 |B6 c2 d4 |d4 e4 f4 |e6 c2 A4 |A8 :|:a4 |f4 a6 f2 |
a4 f4 d4 |e6 c2 A4 |A8 f2e2 |d6 B2 d4 |f4 d4 B4 |c6 A2 F4 |
F8 A4 |G4 B6 G2 |F4 A4 d4 |e6 c2 A4 |d8 f4 |g6 f2 e4 |
a4 f4 d4 |d6 e2 c4 |d8 :|

Now here is a tune for
Deanna’s sweet daughter;
If you haven’t met her yet,
You really ought ter.

Believe this to be part of the original entity.

I was quite pleasantly surprised to have that “Hey, wait, I know this tune!” epiphany roundabout 1:06:30 of part one. Very nice piano rendition. Was surprised that a tune birthed in 1980 made it into this mix of Americana, Parlor Music, and Old-Timey until I recalled that The Ashoken Farewell which figured prominently in his Civil War documentary was its junior by two years.

Bob talks about Deanna and her lovely daughter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcOgO1vGxX4&feature=youtu.be&t=5m36s

play video

As told by Himself.

There’s more to the story but I won’t say.
It’ll have to wait for another day.

A very common misnomer. The waltz was simply named “Amelia” by McQuillen.

I don’t think there should be an A# in bar 7 of the A part on the sheet music;

I agree with the above poster. I couldn’t play it from the dots. I think I transcribed it from my flute playing. I couldn’t make sense of it on my fiddle from this transcription. I like the way these guys play it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tvqdWK7lxw. Very grassy, swinging flavor to it. I hope he gets enough money for a bow rehair.

play video

I suppose the best way to learn this is to learn it by ear and then play it with passion.

Bob McQuillen died in Manchester, NH on 4th February 2014, aged 90 y.