Annotation:I'll Tousle Your Kurtchy
X:1 T:I’ll Touzle your Kurchy M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (No. 4, p. 2) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Emin B|E>GE GEG|B>AB e2f|g>fe dgB|A>GA BGE| E>GE GEG|B>AB e2f|g>fe dcB|AGF E2:| |:B|E>GE B2B|GEG B2B|E>GE A2G|FDF A2 G/F/| E>GE B2B|GEG e2f|gfe dcB|AGF E2:|]
I'LL TOUSLE/TOUZLE YOUR KURTCHY/KURTHY. AKA - "I'll Towsel Your Kurchy." AKA and see "Rustic Courtship." English, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). Tousle/touzle, towsel means "to ruffle, rumple, dishevel, or pull about or tease in a rough manner", while 'kurtchy' or 'kurchy' is a kerchief. The title thus means 'I'll rumple your kerchief', presumably an act of intimacy, especially in view of the alternate title "Rustic Courtship."
John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the tune in Glasgow publisher James Aird's 1782 collection (Selections, vol. 1, p. 4). However it earlier appeared in London publisher John Johnson's Two Hundred Favourite Country Dances, vol. 7 (1756, p. 68). The melody also appears in several musicians' manuscript collections, including that of fiddler Eleazor Cary (1797) and Luther Kingsley (1795), both from Mansfield, Connecticut -- it is likely they knew each other; Edward Murphy (1790, Newport, probably Rhode Island); and John Gaylord (1816), also a Connecticut musician. Later, County Cork uilleann piper and Church of Ireland cleric wikipedia:James_Goodman_(musiologist) (1828-1896) entered it into Book 2 of his large mid-19th century music manuscript collection, copied from Aird's 1782 volume.
