Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz

Subject: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,barbara
Date: 10 Dec 00 - 01:05 PM

I heard there were words to Amelia's Waltz - does anyone know them?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 10 Dec 00 - 03:32 PM

Do you mean the tune by Bob MacQuillen? I'll be seeing him this week and I'll ask him. He's one of the treasures of my region.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,barbara
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 01:01 AM

Don't know the origins of the version we know. We learned it from a fiddler in Richmond, CA. Where are you, and what do you know about the tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 01:14 PM

I live in the lovely Monadnock region in southwestern New Hampshire, USA. Bob MacQuillen is a local contra dance musician who has played for over 50 years. He was directly involved in the contra dance revival with Ralph Page and the rest of them. He lives in Peterborough, is in his 70s at least, and is feisty, funny, and a lovely man. He will be honored at the Ralph Page weekend in January (I'll look up a URL when I have time) and has recently had a video done about him.
I believe Amelia's Waltz is his one "hit" but there may be others.
My favorite memory of him is when my morris team went to dance at his house right after he came home from the hospital after heart surgery. He met us at the door, wielding a real-live-here-now blunderbuss and cussing at us-"Git off my land, you $#*!!" with such a twinkle in his eye!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Ely
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 01:26 PM

Does anyone know how old (approximately) his tune is?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 02:51 PM

I did a tune search and found several renditions of a song called "Amelia's Waltz" here (click) (the M's are the MIDIs). Nice tune(s) - sees like more than one tune has this title.
(the Tune Finder is listed on our Links page)
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 03:21 PM

Joe, I think you'll find they're the same tune at quite a few different sites.

I've never heard it had words, but someone may have written some for the tune.

Here's another Bob McQuillen hit (MIDI) - Swinging on a Gate. I believe Bob has at least one tunebook out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 05:34 PM

Hi, Jeri - I haven't quite figured out how the Tune Finder is set up. Sometimes, you get a page-long list of links, and they're all the same tune. Other times, you get three or four tunes that are partly or completely different from each other. It sure is a handy site, though.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,barbara
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 08:45 PM

This is the tune I am thinking of: Amelia's Waltz

---

Fixed your link, Barbara.
To make a link, type in: <a href="www.insert.link.address"> name of link (can be anything)</a>
You just have to be careful about making sure the closing quotation marks are there. (Missing them can mess up a thread.) --JoeClone

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,barbara
Date: 11 Dec 00 - 08:52 PM

OOps, I didn't know how to construct an abbreviated link. Can anyone tell me how?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 09:14 AM

Yup, that's Mac's tune all right! I talked last night with his and my good friend Alouette and she's going to ask him- and I should see him on Saturday, as I mentioned before.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 10:08 AM

I didn't find a source, but when I said "I believe Bob has at least one tunebook out," I was a bit off the mark. I found this website, that said he had 11 such books.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,barbara
Date: 12 Dec 00 - 10:41 AM

Thanks for all help and information on the tune and it's source. Looking forward to hearing what you find out!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From:
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 12:10 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 01:18 PM

Bob comes to Juneau periodically, as he does to a lot of other communities. One of his unique qualities is his habit of writing a tune that he names in honor of someone who has helped him. Thus there is a tune called 'Stey's Stay', a reel named for a friend who puts him up every time he comes to town.

As for his tune books, as was said above, there are lots, all hand written that I've seen- divided into jigs, reels and waltzes. A most prolific man.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 05 Aug 01 - 05:41 PM

Jeez, once again I've left undone those things which I ought to have done. If I see Bob tomorrow at the contra dance in Nelson I'll ask him; otherwise I'll call him later this week!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Robin2
Date: 12 Aug 01 - 10:03 PM

Did you say that Bob wrote Swinging on a gate? I have always been a fan of his mucis, but never knew that tune to be from his pen.
Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 02:07 PM

Bob Mac wasn't at Nelson last time I went. Maybe tonight!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From:
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 08:18 AM

I see we had an earlier thread on the tune for Amelia's Waltz

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 08:35 AM

This is definitely one of those things I've left undone that I ought to have done. I haven't seen Mac all summer- if he's not playing in Nelson tonight, I'll call him this week for sure!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From:
Date: 30 Aug 02 - 11:57 PM

I saw Animaterra's name in a thread so I thought I would

Refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 01:18 PM

I wonder if there is any word on this!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 01:25 PM

As an aside, about a year ago I learned another gorgeous Mac tune, the Augusta Waltz. Don't know how I missed it before; he evidently wrote it in 1987.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 01:53 PM

Follow up to what I said about Swinging On A Gate being a Bob McQuillen tune and Robin2 saying he never knew Bob McQuillen wrote it: oops. He didn't. I really don't know how I got it in my head that he wrote it, but I'd believed it for a long time! It's a traditional tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 02:12 PM

The name Amelia Waltz seems to have been popular. American Memory has sheet music for four tunes (no lyrics), all mid-19th century, all published in the U. S.:
Amelia Waltz for guitar. By Lumbye, arr. C. C. Converse, 1856.
Amelia Waltz, by Louis Wagener, 1853.
Amelia Waltzes, by F. W. Hagemeyer, 1847.
Amelia Isabella Waltz, by Weder, 1847.

Not pertinent to MacQuillen's tune, but interesting trivia.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,barbara
Date: 15 Dec 02 - 11:14 AM

Turns out we spoke with Bob McQuillen, but forgot to ask him if there were words to the waltz! We did find out that the name of his waltz is "Amelia" and not "Amelia's Waltz". He said that even his band calls it Amelia's Waltz; but he wrote it as "Amelia". He wrote it about 23 years ago in honor of a little girl who was born in a cabin made from the crate that shipped the fuselage of Lindberg's plane back from France. Look up 'Lindberg Crate' on Google to go to the web site. It's now a museum.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 19 May 04 - 12:38 AM

There is sheet music for "Amelia" at this site, as a PDF file:
click. No words shown on the sheet music.

Lin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 19 May 04 - 12:49 AM

AND it's available in The Waltz Book I for $12.00+$3.00 shipping along with 50 other waltzes, from this site. Still no lyrics. There doesn't appear to be any.

Lin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 04 - 05:53 AM

Bob Mac told me who wrote the words and I promptly forgot. Someone in PA, USA. I'll call him again and write it down, this time!

(Bob also wrote a hornpipe for my sweetie last summer. It's Bob's way to not tell the honoree until the tune is published in the next book. Trouble is, my sweetie died before Bob could tell him. Bob broke with tradition to give it to me, so now I have it to cherish. Look for "Byron Smith's hornpipe" in Bob's next book!)

Alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 19 May 04 - 06:12 AM

Oops- I don't know how or why but I just realized I lost my cookie. That last GUEST was me!

Allison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: KathWestra
Date: 19 May 04 - 01:11 PM

Bob was honored last year by the National Endowment for the Arts with a National Heritage Fellowship for his contributions to contradance music. He shared that honor with the likes of Jean Ritchie, among other folk notables. The highlight of the award program (held at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC) for me was when Bob and his band, "Old New England" (a group that includes Amelia's mother), played "Amelia" to an audience of several thousand while the real Amelia, now a lovely young woman, waltzed onstage to the tune with her partner and a handful of other dancers. It was a beautiful, beautiful moment. And a much-deserved honor for Bob, who has written literally thousands of tunes. He writes waltzes like nobody else and, because he's played for dances for so many years, plays them so that you can actually waltz to them. I'm a real fan, needless to say.
Kathy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 19 May 04 - 06:47 PM

Thanks for that story, Kath. Bob is one of my favorite people on earth.

Allison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST
Date: 20 May 04 - 04:56 PM

Terrific!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 05:57 AM

Well, I asked him again and he's plumb forgot. Sorry, folks. If he ever remembers the person's name I'll write it down immediately (I guess that means I have to start bringing writing implements to the Nelson slow jam and contra dance).

Mac's doing fine these days, by the way. The man is solid gold through and through.

Allison

Subject: Tune Add: AMELIA'S WALTZ (Bob McQuillen)
From: Peace
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 06:06 PM

AMELIA'S WALTZ
%
%
X:1
T:Amelia's Waltz
M:3/4
K:D
C:Bob McQuillen
L:1/8
A,|"D"D3 E D2|"D"D2 F3 E|"Bm"D2 F2 BF|"F#m"A3 F A2|\
"G"B2 G3 B|"D"A2 F3 E|"Bm"D2 B,3 ^A,|"G"B,4 A,2 |
"D"D3 E D2|"D"D2 F3 E|"Bm"D2 F2 BF|"F#m"A3 F A2|\
"G"B3 c d2|"G"d2 e2 f2|"A"e2 c2 B2|1 "A"A3 G FE :|2 "A"A3 f ag ||
"D"f2 a3 b|"D"a2 f2 df|"A"e3 c B2|"A"A3 c fe|\
"Bm"d3 c d2|"Bm"f3 e d2|"F#m"c3 B A2|"F#m"F3 E F2|
"G"G2 B3 G|"D"F2 A2 d2|"A"e3 c e2|"D"f2 d2 f2|\
"G"g3 f g2|"D"a2 f2 e2|"A"d2 e2 c2|"D"d4 z2 :|

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,Peadar (formerly) of Portsmouth
Date: 18 Feb 10 - 01:45 PM

We had a really special moment happen at a gig recently that involved THE Amelia that Bob McQuillen had written Amelia's Waltz for.

My partner did a nice post about it on our website, called Amelia Waltzes In

I've read so many fun stories from fellow 'Catters, I just thought I'd share this one.

Peter

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 05:55 PM

What a wonderful story! I've never met the real Amelia, but I know her mom, and a lot of folks around here know Amelia.

Bob's getting older (but still playing a lot!), and he can't remember who wrote the lyrics. Maybe it's time for someone else to write another set of words?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Amelia's Waltz
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 12:54 PM

Peace, thank you for posting that ABC back in 2006. It's beautiful.