William Boletta writes:

>I'm afraid I must disagree with Ms. Mikulska about the correct German
>pronunciation of the two German composers' names she mentions.  The
>general rule for all German words is that the main stress is on the first
>syllable....the main stress is most definitely on the FIRST syllable:
>BUX-tuh-who-duh and PACH-ul-bell.  The *secondary* stress is on the third
>syllable of the respective names.

Maybe Ms Michulka and Mr Boletta should split the difference.  German
orthography is simple and clear.  Its orthoepy isn't.  There are many
dialectal shadings to the language, even as spoken by the highly educated.
Southerners,e.g.  Bavarians, Austrians, some Swiss, take their time winding
up and tend to shift accent further back in a word than do the northerners.
Up north, the inclination would be to say it like Mr Boletta, down south
more like Ms Michulka.  Is it decisive that both Buxtehude and Pachelbel
were northerners? Maybe.  Yet the northernmost German, Platt, is scarcely
understandable to us down here in Bavaria.  My impression is that up there
they'd be inclinded to prefer the accent toward the end rather than the
beginning--but I'm not sure.  If, however, my impression is correct then
the northernmost Germans accent words more like the southernmost, rather
than like run-of-the-mill northerners.  That's why I'm suggesting splitting
the difference.

Denis Fodor