Frank Oatland’s Waltz: The dance given with this tune is a conventional longways duple minor, not the couple dance that might be expected by the title. The waltz as a couple dance was still bit of a novelty at this date and regarded by some with suspicion, as it provided a courting couple with plenty of close physical contact. Frank Oatland was the name of a country rustic in Thomas Morton’s play “A Cure for the Heartache†(1797) and it may be that the title of this dance & tune is meant to imply a conservative approach to a new fashion. Plays of the period often featured dances and many of these tunes have made their way into the present folk scene – Morton also wrote the play “Speed the Ploughâ€.
