Virginiana

Written in the spirit of neoclassical works like Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and The Rake’s Progress, Virginiana is an exploration of 18th-century North American aesthetics heard through a contemporary musical lens. The texts for Virginiana, written by Robert Bolling (1738 -1775) and taken from J.A. Leo Lemay’s volume 'Robert Bolling Woos Anne Miller", blend poetry and prose, telling in retrospect the story of Anne Miller and Robert Bolling's rocky courtship in the year 1760. Spears transcribed three unpublished dance melodies composed by Bolling and written in his notebooks alongside his poetry. Each melody is quoted at a key moment in the piece.