Amelia

New England contra dance waltz in D major, composed in 1981 by Bob McQuillen, a prolific and highly regarded contra dance composer who received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. McQuillen wrote the tune for Amelia Stiles, the then-3-year-old daughter of flute player Deanna Stiles, and reportedly prefers the tune simply be called “Amelia.” The tune carries a charming footnote: Amelia was born near a Maine site where Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic-flight shipping crate had come to rest (now the Lindbergh Crate Museum in Canaan, Maine), and she was named after Amelia Earhart. It’s become a standard in the New England contra dance repertoire, recorded by Rodney and Randy Miller, Frank Ferrel and Joe Derrane, and McQuillen himself with the group Old New England.