--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "C. Darwin Goranson"
<cdog_squirrel@...> wrote:
> "Musor" was an old Russian word for musician (which is where the name
> [Mussorgsky] comes from.)
"Musor" (stressed on the initial syllable) means
(appropriately) 'rubbish'. It also means 'cops, pigs'. As far as I know
the earliest attestation is seventeenth century and connected with the
mining industry (Chernyx).
A connection with "musor" is immediately noticeable in the
name "Musorgskij", which is also stressed on the first syllable. The
composer often made the connection explicit by signing letters to his
friends as "Musorjanin", i.e. 'the one who inhabits a rubbish heap'.
The composer's brother did not like the association with 'rubbish' and
changed the accent to the second syllable, which also makes it easier
to pronounce the "g", distancing the name in two ways from "musor".
Ever since there has been a war going on between two kinds of snobs:
(1) Those (a philistine majority) who stress the second syllable, which
sounds more natural because it follows a productive pattern and avoids
the connection with 'rubbish'.
(2) Those (a discerning minority) who stress the first syllable either
because it is a less likely type of accentuation or because they
actually know it is Modest Petrovich's own.
I'm not sure which side I dislike more.
The best evidence that the composer really did use initial stress
himself is in an iambic poem a friend he lived with for a time
dedicated to him. Since the poet later developed into a dedicated right-
winger (and was a minor poet anyhow) he was a non-person during the
entire Soviet period. But in Russian you can't argue with competently
made iambic poems. (It started with something like "Skazhi mne,
Musorgskij, ...".)
I vaguely recall that the Union of Soviet Composers for a time
propagated non-initial stress on the basis of information received from
Musorgskij's only surviving relatives, who however all descended from
his brother, so that their testimony was rubbish. Because of this,
initial stress was anti-regime for a time. I'm not sure this story is
authentic, though.
Initial stress is winning because the truth will out.
> Is this a Greek borowing, or is it right from PIE?
The etymology of "musor" is contested. Vasmer connects it with
Gr. "musos" (with short "u") 'ucleanliness, defilement'. (Note that the
ethnonym "Musos" has a long "u" and cannot be identical). The Russian
editors of Vasmer's dictionary object violently to the Greek connection
and derive the word from Turkish origins.
The Russian words for "music", "Muses" etc. all have a -z- and I
strongly doubt if anybody ever feels a connection with "musor"
and "Musorgskij".
Best,
Willem