Re: CHAT: A flat minor (was: ATTN: Pablo Flores (VIRUS WARNING))

Incidentally, the name "Musorgsky" is stressed on the first syllable in
Russia, but universally on the second syllable by educated music listeners
in America.  (Except by musicologists who study Russian music, and even
then you have to make allowances for your audience.)  Strangely, the
correct pronunciation is slighly embarrassing, since the g is silent,
and "musor" (accented on the first syllable) means trash, or, colloquially,
snot, so you have this composer who wrote The Great Russian National Opera
who everyone goes around referring to as Mr. Snotsky.

I have always been amused by the varying pronunciations of Debussy.  In the
UK, he is pretty much /d@'bjusi/, in the US /'dEbj@si/ -- please insert
your preferred diphthongs for u and i -- and of course in France, when
pronounced alone he is /d@by'si/, so as he moves from country to country
and continent to continent, he gets all three of his syllables accented.
Lucky guy.

In my experience, Dvorak usually gets pronounced /'dvorZak/ (except of
course with an American "r" - I don't know the symbol) by the musically
literate here in the US.  I can't remember anyone ever deliberately giving
him three syllables, or dropping out the r entirely.

- Nat

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