| R |
after the catalogue of music by Antonio Vivaldi
(1678-1741) prepared by Malipiero and published by
Ricordi; after Riedl the cataloguer of music by Gottlieb
Muffat (1690-1770); after Peter Ryom the cataloguer of
music by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741); after Rice the
cataloguer of the music of Adelbert Gyrowetz
(1763-1850); after Mario Rinaldi the cataloguer of music
by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741); after Peter Raabe the
cataloguer of music by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) |
| R. |
abbreviation used variously for ripieno,
recitative, responsory or ritardando
|
| R & B |
abbreviation for 'rhythm and blues' |
| Ra |
the lowered second degree of the major scale; in
'fixed do' solfeggio, ra is always the note 'D
flat' |
| Rabab |
a very ancient instrument found primarily in
Afghanistan but also in India, particularly in Kashmir.
It has a hollowed-out body of wood with a membrane
stretched over the opening. Combinations of gut (or
nylon) and metal strings pass over a bridge which rests
on a taught membrane. The rabab is mentioned
quite frequently in old texts; however this is usually
the seni rabab which is a rather different
instrument from what we think of today. It is common to
refer to the modern rabab as the kabuli rabab
to distinguish it from the seni rabab. There is
evidence that this instrument may be the progenitor of a
number of Indian instruments, the saringda,
sarod and the sarangi. At first it may seem
hard to make the connection between a plucked instrument
and a bowed instrument, however, the waist in the middle
of the rabab is an indication that the instrument
was, at some time, played with a bow and that the
rabab and the European medieval rebec probably share
a common ancestor
more... |
| Rababa |
Afghan lute with 13 sympathetic strings. The three
main gut strings are stretched across a goat skin. Also
known as rubab; another name for the rabab
used in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf nations |
| Rabbia |
(Italian) rage. fury, anger |
| Rabeca |
Brazilian fiddle |
| Rabel |
a bowed folk instrument from Spain. It originated
from the North African rabab |
| Racket, Rackett, Rackettenfagott (Ger.) |
a family of double-reed Renaissance wind instruments
that came in four sizes but lacking the tonal strength
of the shawm and dulcian fell into disuse in the
eighteenth-century
more... |
| Raddolcendo, Raddolcente |
(Italian) becoming gentler, calming down |
| Raddoppiare |
(Italian) to double, in particular to double the
bass with the note an octave below that written in the
score or part |
| Raddoppiamento |
(Italian) doubling |
| Radical bass |
an bass line that links the fundamentals of the
chords in a progression, as described in Traité de
l'harmonie (1722) by Jean-Philippe Rameau
(1683-1764) |
| Raffrenando |
(Italian) checking the speed, slowing |
| Rag, Raga |
see
fundamentals of the Indian rag |
| Raga-soca |
a music style from Trinidad and Tobago, that derives
from reggae, dancehall and calypso |
| Rag dung |
Tibetan ritual trumpets |
| Rageur |
(French) ill-tempered |
| Ragtime |
a musical syle of 1890s America, a forerunner of
jazz |
| Rai |
a popular musical style from Algeria that combines
Berber roots with modern pop |
| Railroad tracks |
another name for caesura |
| Rainha da bateria |
(literally, 'queen of the percussion') a samba
dancer that accompanies the percussion section, the
bateria, of a samba school, usually a woman
chosen for her physical beauty |
| Rajão |
a mid-size Portuguese guitar from the island of
Madeira, which is a little bigger than the braguinha |
| Raking |
performing broken chords on the lute |
| Raks sharki |
belly dance or Oriental dance, one of the world’s
oldest dance forms, that is common throughout the Middle
East and North Africa, partucularly in Egypt where
raks sharki thrives |
| Ralentir |
(French) to slow down |
| Rall. |
abbreviation of rallentando |
| Rallentare, Rallentando, Rallentato |
(Italian) to slow, slowing, slowed |
| Rallentamento |
(Italian) slow |
| Rancheras |
(Spanish, literally 'ranch songs') usually
accompanied by mariachi bands, this Mexican style
began as Mexican cowboy music but in the
twentieth-century, Mexican films popularized the genre,
and it became a pop style |
| Range |
from the lowest note to the highest note whether in
a piece of music, possible on an instrument, achievable
with the voice |
| Rangguin |
the jaw harp of the Negrito pygmies of central
Malaysia, made from palm stalk
more... |
| Rank |
a group of pipes on a pipe organ having one
particular tone color, each pipe being of a specific
pitch in the chromatic scale; the group of pipes that
constitue one stop, a large pipe organ having as many as
100 ranks or more |
| Rant |
old English dance of the seventeenth century,
related to the jig, in duple meter and binary form |
| Rap |
rhythmic chanting consisting of improvised rhymes
performed to rhythmic accompaniment |
| Rapido, Rapidamente, Rapidità |
(Italian) rapid, radily, rapidity |
| Rapproacher |
(French) bring closer together |
| Rapso |
a music style from Trinidad and Tobago, its name
derived from rap and calypso |
| Rapsodia |
(Italian) rhapsody |
| Rasa lila |
a sublime dance from the Indian state of Manipur
depicting Lord Krishna with his female devotees who are
dressed in ornate and highly stylized costumes. The
musical accompaniment is a bamboo flute, vocals and
percussion. It is most commonly performed in the spring |
| Rasch, Rascher |
(German) quick, quicker |
| Rasiya |
a rich tradition of folk-songs that is found in the
Braj area. Rasiya songs describe the love of the
divine couple Radha and Shri Krishna. It is an
inseparable part of the Holy celebrations and all other
festive occasions at Braj. The rasiya is sung to
the rhythm of huge drums, locally known as bumb |
| Rasgueado, Rasguedo |
(Spanish) a style of guitar playing in which the
strings are strummed |
| Raspa, La |
Mexican dance from Veracruz with a peculiar hopping
step |
| Rastrum |
(Latin, literally 'rake') a multi-nibbed pen,
specially designed to rule staves |
| Ratatak |
clacker made with gourd jingles |
| Ratchet |
a percussion instrument consisting of a cogwheel,
frame, and wooden tongue that produces a very loud
clicking sound by spinning the cogwheel around against
the tongue |
| Ratsche |
(German) rattle |
| Rattenere, Rattenendo, Rattenuto |
(Italian) to hold back, holding back, held back |
| Rattle |
among many other forms, a ratchet-toothed percussion
instrument
more... |
| Rauh |
(German) rough, coarse |
| Rauschend |
(German) rustling, murmuring |
| Rauschpfeife |
a capped double-reed instrument with a bore like a
shawm
more... |
| Ravvivando, Ravvivato |
(Italian) quickening, quickened' |
| Rbab soussi |
Moroccan one-stringed fiddle |
| Re |
the second degree of the major scale; in 'fixed do'
solfeggio, re is always the note 'D' |
| Reaggeton |
reggae sung in Spanish, with rap influences |
| Real answer |
a responding phrase, which exactly reproduces an
earlier entry, set an interval away, for example, as in
a fugue |
| Realisation, Realise |
the addition, by the keyboard player, of chords and
passing notes to a figured bass; the addition, by a
soloist, of ornamentation to a musical line |
| Rebab |
(Arabic) see 'rebec'; see rabab |
| Rebaba |
see rabab |
| Rebec, Rebeck |
derived from the rabab, a family of bowed
stringed-instrument of Moorish origin
more... |
| Rebube, Rebute |
(French) Jew's harp |
| Recapitulation |
a part of a work in sonata where material
introduced, in the first section of sonata form, and
then developed, in the second section of sonata form,
now returns; also used generally to describe the return
of the opening thematic material |
| Recessional |
composition to be performed at the end of a church
service as the clergy leaves the church |
| Recht, Rechte |
(German) right |
| Récit |
(French) Swell organ, also abbreviation for
recitative |
| Recital |
a musical performance usually involving a small
number of performers, for example, one, i.e. solo
recital, or two, i.e. duo recital |
| Recitando or Recitante (It.), Récitant (Fr.) |
more speech than song |
| Recitational |
a chant that is syllabic and has a melody that
repeats a single pitch, with melodic inflections (up
down or a combination of the two, to provide punctuation |
| Recitative, Récitative (Fr.), Recitativo (It. and
Sp.) |
a passage of speech-like singing, often preparatory
to an aria
more... |
| Recitative secco |
a quick-moving recitative over simple punctuated
chords, often with only a harpsichord and cello or viola
da gamba as accompaniment |
| Recitative stromentato |
a recitative with full orchestral accompaniment |
| Recorder |
fipple flute with eight holes (although the bottom
two can be in the form of a pair of smaller holes)
popular in the sixteenth-, seventeenth- and early
eighteenth- centuries, and now more commonly associated
with the classroom as an aid to learning music
more... |
| Reco-reco |
a long hollow scraper popular in Angolan music. Also
known as dikanza puita; a Brazilian scraper of
bamboo or metal, sometimes with springs |
| Recoupe |
a dance of the French Renaissance usually danced
after the basse dance |
| Recueilli |
(French) meditative |
| Redend |
(German) speaking |
| Red notes |
in medieval music, notes that were colored red on
the page in order to distinguish differences in rhythm
or octave transposition for specific notes; also used to
show differences in a cantus firmus from the original |
| Redondo |
an Afro-Venezuelan drum set formed by long
cylindrical drums. It is layed on the ground and the
musician sits on top of the drum, striking the head with
his hands and a stick |
| Redoubler, Redoublement |
(French) doubling |
| Redowa |
a fast, triple-time dance from Bohemia |
| Reduction |
a simplified arrangement of a composition, for
example, a piano version of a symphony |
| Reduire (Fr.), Reduzieren (Ger.) |
to arrange |
| Redundant entry |
an extra voice in the initial entries or the
exposition in a fugue |
| Reed, Reed instruments, Reed pipe |
a piece of cane or metal that, when air is blown
across it, vibrates freely to produce a sound;
instruments that have a reed, for example, oboe and
bassoon (which have a pair of reeds), clarinet and
saxophone (which have a single reed), harmonica and
harmonium which have a reed for each note
more... |
| Reel |
a lively Scottish, Irish or Scandinavian dance in
4/4 |
| Refrain |
a part of a song that recurs often at the end of
each of a number of verses, sometimes called a chorus |
| Refrapper |
(German) to strike again |
| Regal (Eng.), Regale (It.), Régale (Fr.) |
originally a small portative reed-organ but later
fitted with flue pipes |
| Reggae |
a slow tempo rhythmic style that originated in
Jamaica, it derived from ska and rocksteady. Its roots
were Jamaican folk, American soul and rock. Many reggae
performers adopted the spiritual philosophy of
Rastafarianism |
| Reggaeton |
see reaggeton |
| Regina caeli laetare |
(Latin, literally 'Queen of Heaven, rejoice') one of
the four Marian Antiphons, sung between Easter and
Pentecost
more... |
| Register |
a set of organ pipes associated with a particular
stop; similarly, a set of harpsichord strings associated
with a particular stop; a part of the range of an
instrument or the voice with a characteristic sound |
| Registration |
the choice of stops, tonal colours available to the
performer of organs and harpsichords |
| Registrieren, Registrierung |
(German) to register, registration |
| Registro |
(Italian) register |
| Reigen, Reigenlied, Reihen |
(German) a Medieval round dance form, associated
with the arrival of summer, in triple meter and
characterized by repeated notes and phrases |
| Rein |
(German) pure |
| Réjouissance |
(French, literally 'enjoyment') a spirited movement
found in suites of the baroque period |
| Relâché |
(French) loosened (as with the snare of a drum) |
| Related keys |
musical keys that because of their similarity are
easy to move between |
| Relative keys |
keys that share a common key signature, for example,
C major and A minor |
| Relative pitch |
an ability to identify one pitch with reference to
another given pitch |
| Release |
in the A-A-B-A
structure, common to certain sonata and symphonic forms,
B is called the 'release', 'channel' or 'bridge'.
If B section is eight bars long, the 'release' is
called a 'middle eight' |
| Religieux, Religieuse |
(French) religious |
| Religioso, Religiosamente |
(Italian) religious, with a devotional feeling |
| Relish |
an ornament from the English Renaissance and Baroque
eras, that exists in two forms: the first, the single
relish consists of a trill with a turned ending or
simply a turn; the second, a double relish is a compound
ornament, defined differently by different writers, but
usually including a trill or an appoggiatura |
| Remettre |
(French) to put back, to go back to an original
choice of registration |
| Remote keys |
the relationship between keys that have relatively
few notes in common, for example, the key of C and the
key of F sharp |
| Renaissance |
(Italian) an era of music between the fifteenth- and
sixteenth-centuries (c. 1430-1600 A.D.), that follows
the Medieval era and precedes the Baroque era |
| Renaissance dance |
the Renaissance period of dance covers at least two
centuries and, for dancers, falls into two distinct
parts. The early Renaissance covers the later fifteenth-
and early sixteenth centuries, while the late
Renaissance covers the rest of the sixteenth- and the
beginning of the seventeenth-centuries. This division is
made on the basis of available documentary sources and
the changing styles of dance that they record. Despite
the chronological limits given above, the early
Renaissance period of dance is commonly referred to by
dancers as ‘fifteenth century’ and the late Renaissance
period of dance as ‘sixteenth century’
[taken from
The Early Dance Circle] |
| Rendition |
a performance |
| Renforcer |
(French) increase |
| Renforcez |
(French) increase! |
| Rentrée |
(French) re-entry |
| Renvoi |
(French) the repeat sign |
| Repeat |
 |
a sign indicating that a section of a piece
of music is to be played a second time |
|
| Repercussion |
the frequent repetition of the same sound; the
re-entrance, following other matieral, of the subject
and answer in a fugue |
| Répertoire |
compositions that an individual or ensemble has
prepared for performance |
| Repeticiôn |
(Spanish) repeat |
| Répétiteur (Fr.), Repetitore (It.), Repetitor
(Ger.) |
choir-master in an opera house, an assistant
teacher, a coach |
| Répétition (Fr.), Repetizione (It.) |
rehearsal |
| Répétition general |
(French) dress rehearsal, in continental opera
houses, often given in front of an invited audience |
| Repinique |
a small samba drum with a metallic sound. It is
played with one stick and the bare hand (Brazil) |
| Repique |
Afro-Uruguayan candombe drum |
| Replica |
(Italian) repeat; (English) a term applied to a
musical instrument that is a copy of a particular
original (reproduction has the same meaning) |
| Replicato |
(Italian) doubled |
| Replicazione |
(Italian) repetition |
| Repos |
(French) repose |
| Reprendre |
(French) to take up again |
| Reprenez |
(French) take up again! |
| Reprise |
(French) repeat, recapitulation, revival; a
shortened version of a major composition in a stage
production used to reward the audience with a repeat of
a popular melody, often used as a finale to a scene or
an act |
| Reque |
see riqq |
| Reque Reque |
a South American scraper found in Bolivia and other
Andean nations |
| Requiem |
(Latin, taken from Requiem aeternam dona eis,
Domine meaning 'Grant them eternal rest, Lord') a
musical composition honoring the dead; more specially
(1) the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead; or (2) other
commemorative pieces of analogous intent
more...
|
| Requinto |
a wooden flute-like instrument from Galicia (Spain)
that is played sideways; small guitar used in Spain,
Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico; the lead drum in the
Afro-Puerto Rican style of bomba |
| Requinto jarocho |
a small 4-string Mexican guitar from the Jarocho
region. It is used in son jarocho. Also known as
guitarra de son and javalina |
| Rescue opera |
a style of opera that became popular in France after
the fall of the monarchy, where the main hero or heroine
is rescued from certain death at the last moments, for
example, Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827) |
| Résolument |
(French) resolutely |
| Resolution |
harmonic progression from discord to concord |
| Resoluto, Risoluto |
(Italian) resolute |
| Resoluzione, Risoluzione |
(Italian) firmness, steady rhythm |
| Resonator |
those parts of instruments which resonate or
vibrate, thus enhancing the sound of the instrument,
particularly the body of a violin (an example of a
resonator box) |
| Respond, Responsorial, Responsory |
in a responsorial chant the respond is the refrain,
which is sung by one section, the verse is the answer
sung by another section; 'respond' and 'verse' are often
abbreviated 'R.' and 'V.' each slashed with a diagonal
line |
| Ressortir |
(French) to make a melody stand out |
| Rest |
a device or pad placed between a violin and the
violinist's shoulder, called a chin-rest; a musical
symbol indicating a period of silence |
| Restatement |
see 'recapitulation' |
| Restez |
(French) remain on a note or string |
| Retardando |
(Italian) ritardando |
| Retardation |
a suspension in a harmony that resolves upwards
rather than downwards; a slowing down of the tempo |
| Retenant, Retenu |
(French) ritenuto, to hold back immediately
(not gradually as with rallentando) |
| Retirer |
(French) remove stop from use |
| Retransition |
in sonata-allegro form, the last part of the
development that leads to the tonic of the main key and
is intended to emphasize it |
| Retrograde motion |
a theme played backwards |
| Retrograde inversion motion |
a theme played backwards and upside down |
| Retrouvez |
(French) re-attain |
| Réunis |
(French) coupled |
| Reveille |
(French) the military signal annoucing the start of
the day, 'wake-up' call |
| Revenir |
(French) to return |
| Reverse motion |
imitation in contrary motion, that is, the ascending
intervals are changed to descending intervals and the
descending intervals changed to ascending |
| Rêveur |
(French) dreamy |
| Revidiert |
(German) revised |
| Rewap |
a three-string long necked lute of the Uighur Turks
in China. The resonator is usually round, covered with
python skin or other elements and sometimes there are
elaborate wood, bone and horn inlays |
| Rezitation |
see sprechgesang |
| Rezitativ |
(German) recitative |
| Rf, Rfz |
abbreviations for rinforzando |
| RH |
abbreviation for 'right hand' |
| Rhapsody |
term similar to 'fantasia' applied to pieces from
the nineteenth-century inspired by extroverted romantic
notions |
| Rhetoric and music |
in the Medieval and Renaissance eras, many writers
tried to draw parallels between the orator (and oration)
and the musician (and music) and it was this old idea,
which originated in classical times, that would later
lead to the Baroque idea of the 'Doctrine of the
Affections' |
| Rhozok |
a Russian wind instrument made out of wood, with a
trumpet-like mouthpiece. It is also known as Vladimir
horn |
| Rhumba |
a misspelling of rumba |
| Rhyme |
ending two words with the same sound, usually
applied in poetry to the last word of one line and the
last word of the next |
| Rhythm |
the disposition of strong and weak beats in a piece
of music
more...
|
| Rhythm and blues |
American pop music style popular between the 1940's
and 1960's, it is played by an ensemble, generally with
a lead vocalist or instrumentalist, a rhythm section,
and an ensemble of voices, wind instruments, or guitar;
the music is mainly vocal, in quadruple time, and in a
major key, but characterized by the use 'blue notes' |
| Rhythmé, Rhythmique |
(French) rhythmic |
| Rhythmic modes |
see
rhythmic modes & anacrusis
|
| Rhythmisch |
(German) rhythmic |
| Rhythm section |
the performers using percussion instruments; when
applied to a jazz band, the rhythm section includes
piano, double bass (or electric bass), guitar and drum
kit |
| Rhythmus |
(German) rhythm |
| Ri |
the raised second degree of a major scale; in 'fixed
do' solfeggio, re is always the note 'D sharp' |
| Ribattuta |
(Italian) a trill in dotted rhythm |
| Ribible |
rebec |
| Ribs |
the sides of a stringed instrument such as a violin,
guitar, etc. |
| Ributhe |
(Scottish) Jew's harp |
| Ricercare, Ricercarta |
(Italian) an elaborate contrapuntal piece of music |
| Richettato |
(Italian) spiccato |
| Richtig |
(German) right, precise |
| Riddle canon |
a canon in which the composer has left it to the
performer to choose at which point and at which pitch
the following voice(s) should start |
| Rideau |
(French) curtain |
| Ride cymbal |
a cymbal (circular brass plate 20" to 22" in
diameter) that sits on a stand at an angle, as a part of
the drum kit, that is struck with drum sticks or brushes
to keep a rhythmic pulse of the composition |
| Ride out |
in jazz, the final chorus of a piece is called the
'ride-out', 'out chorus' or 'sock chorus' |
| Ride rhythm |
a basic jazz pattern of rhythmic beats in each bar
(measure), so-named because it is often tapped out on
either a 'ride cymbal' or a 'high hat' |
| Riding |
playing repeated rhythmic patterns with the sticks
or brushes on a cymbal |
| Ridotto |
(Italian) a reduction, an arrangement, an 18th
century entertainment in which audience and musicians
would take part |
| Riduzione |
(Italian) reduction, arrangement |
| Riff |
a short music phrase, often repeated, particularly
in jazz or blues |
| Rigaudon (Fr.), Rigadoon (Old Eng.) |
a dance in simple duple or quadruple time not unlike
a bourrée |
| Rigg |
see riqq |
| Rigurigi |
Ugandan one-string fiddle |
| Rigore, Rigoroso |
(Italian) strict time |
| Rik |
see riqq |
| Rilasciando, Rilasciante, Rilassando, Rilassato |
(Italian) rallentando |
| Rimettendo, Rimettendosi |
(Italian) returning to the original tempo |
| Rímur |
a dramatic form of epic song from Iceland, rooted in
narrative poetry. As originally performed, a rímur
circle could last many hours and cover many subjects |
| Rinforzando, Rinforzare, Rinforzato, Rin.
(abbrev.) |
(Italian) accenting, accented |
| Ring shout |
religious dance performed by African-American
slaves, performed with hand clapping and a shuffle step
to spirituals |
| Rip |
a loud tonal slide up to a note often ending with a
sharp accent |
| Riparelle |
a suggestive dance that appeared in Vert-Vert
by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880); it is not unlike the
Can Can |
| Ripetizione |
(Italian) repetition |
| Ripieno |
(Italian) a term used to distinguish passages played
by soloists (concertante) and those played by the
whole orchestra (ripieno) |
| Riposo, Riposata |
(Italian) repose, reposeful |
| Riprendere |
(French) resume original tempo |
| Ripresa |
(Italian) repeat, recapitulation |
| Riq |
see riqq |
| Riqq |
Middle Eastern and North African tambourine |
| Riscaldano |
(Italian) livelier |
| Risoluto, Risolutamente |
(Italian) bold, resolute, resolutely |
| Risoluzione |
(Italian) resolution |
| Rispetto |
a type of Italian folk-song |
| Ristringendo |
(Italian) quickening |
| Risvegliato |
(Italian) animated |
| Ritardare, Ritardando, Ritardato, Rit. or Ritard.
(abbrev. of Ritardando) |
(Italian) to hold back, holding back, held back
(gradual change of tempo) |
| Ritardo |
(Italian) the gradual diminishing of speed |
| Ritenuto, Riten. (abbrev.) |
(Italian) suddenly slower, sometime used instead of
ritardando |
| Riti |
Gambian one-string violin |
| Ritmo |
(Italian) rhythm |
| Ritmo di tre battute |
music played so quickly that each bar (measure) is
played as a single beat and each group of three bars is
a single hyperbar (hypermeasure) |
| Ritmico |
(Italian) rhythmic |
| Ritornel (Eng.), Ritournelle (Fr.), Ritornello
(It.), Ritornell (Ger.) |
a piece or section returned to; a passage in a
concerto during which the soloist is silent; the closing
section of a fourteenth-century Italian madrigal; in
early opera, an instrumental piece |
| Ritorno |
(Italian) return |
| Ritterlich |
(German) knightly |
| Rkan-dun |
Tibetan bone pipes made of human thighs |
| RO |
from the catalogue of music by Louis Moreau
Gottschalk (1829-1869) prepared by Offergeld |
| Robab |
see rubab |
| Robusto |
(Italian) robust, strongly voiced |
| Rocket theme |
see 'Mannheim' |
| Rock, Rock music |
a popular music style developed in the United States
and Great Britain in the late 1960s characterised by a
driving backbeat, electric guitar and vocals. Its main
influences were 1950s rock and roll, soul music and
blues. As the genre grew, other influences were added,
such as jazz, folk, and classical music. Rock spawned a
lot of subgenres: hard rock, southern rock, heavy metal,
progressive rock, punk rock, grunge, etc. |
| Rock and Roll |
American popular music of the 1950's, essentially a
highly rhythmic style of blues with most compositions
some form of the 12-bar blues, played on electric and
amplified instruments (guitar, sax, drum kit, piano and
bass) with an emphasis on the first beat |
| Rock'n'roll |
see 'rock and roll' |
| Roco |
(Italian) raucous |
| Rococo |
(French) a florid musical style generally applied to
the music of the sons of Bach, early Haydn and Mozart
and late Telemann |
| Roei |
(Japanese) Japanese courtly songs written in T'ang
style, part of gagaku |
| Roh |
(German) coarse, rough |
| Rojok |
Russian trumpet carved from a single piece of wood,
usually apple wood |
| Roll |
a series of rapid drum beats played so quickly that
they sound like a continuous sound |
| Rolltrommel |
(German) tenor drum |
| Rolmo |
horizontal ritual cymbals used by Tibetan monks in
Buddhist rites |
| Romalis |
a type of seguidilla |
| Romance |
(1) a song with a simple vocal line and a simple
accompaniment; especially popular in late eighteenth-
and nineteenth-century France and Italy; (2) a short
instrumental piece with the lyrical character of a vocal
romance |
| Romancero |
(Spanish) a collection of romantic songs |
| Romance sans paroles |
(French) song without words, a type of romantic
piano piece |
| Romanesca (It.), Romanesque (Fr.) |
a dance rather like the galliard, a particular
melody often used as a ground bass, an Italian song from
the Renaissance |
| Roman numerical analysis |
see
Naming chords with Roman numerals |
| Romantic era |
an era of music following the Classical era and
ending around 1900 |
| Romantic music |
nineteenth-century music that is lyrical,
harmonically chromatic, emotionally charged and
nationalistic |
| Romanza |
(Italian) originally long, lyric tales that were
sung by minstrels; romance |
| Rombando |
(Italian) humming |
| Romerías |
Spanish religious processions and festivals; Basque
open circle dances, danced by a wide circle of men and
women holding hands, or joined by handkerchiefs |
| Rommelpot |
a Swedish friction drum |
| Rondador |
small panpipes arranged in thirds on one row.
Capable of producing harmony by blowing a tube and its
adjacent third. Originated in Ecuador |
| Rondalla |
a group of Spanish serenade songs sung by large
groups of singers and players as they walk through the
city streets |
| Ronde |
 |
(French) a semibreve (whole note) |
|
| Ronde |
a lively Renaissance round dance or country dance
associated with the outdoors, in which the participants
danced in a circle or a line |
| Rondeau (s,), Rondeaux (pl.) |
the most enduring of the formes fixes,
popular with the Troubadours, characterised as a song
with a refrain. The rondel and virelai are
two types of rondeaux and are considered to have
been dances. |
| Rondel |
(French) a type of song, sometimes danced, in which
a refrain alternates with a number of contrasted
passages, based on the poetic style of ten or thirteen
lines with only two rhymes and the opening words used
twice as a refrain. |
| Rondellus |
A thirteenth-century style of three-voice
composition with voice exchange |
| Rondeña |
a flamenco fandango from Ronda |
| Rondo |
an instrumental form in which the first or main
section is repeated between subsidiary sections and to
conclude the piece; usually in lively tempo
more...
|
| Roneat ek |
Cambodian high-pitched xylophone |
| Roneat thung |
Cambodian low-pitched xylophone |
| Root |
in a chord, the fundamental note, i.e. the note that
would be the lowest note if the chord were in 'root'
position, but if the note is not at the bottom, the
chord is said to be 'inverted' |
| Ronroco |
an Andean string instrument that is part of the
family of charangos. The ronroco has five
double-strings and it is the largest of the charangos.
It is also known as charangón |
| Rosin |
a substance refined from turpentine which is applied
to the hair of the bows of stringed instruments to give
the necessary 'grip' or roughness to the contact between
string and hair to set the strings in vibration |
| Rota |
(Latin, literally 'wheel') a thirteenth- and
fourteenth-century round; the Latin name for hurdy-gurdy |
| Rotary valve |
valves used on brass instruments to redirect air
through different lengths of tubing fall into two types,
rotary in which the moving piece turns clockwise and
anti-clockwise, or piston in which the moving piece
moves up and down, in each case against a spring |
| Rote |
a method of teaching by imitation |
| Rote, Rotte |
crwth |
| Rotondo |
(Italian) a full tone |
| Rotrouenge |
a Medieval term applied to a style of troubadour
song, that may have implied that a refrain was present
and that the text followed a particular rhyme scheme,
but the precise definition remains uncertain |
| Roulade |
(French) a vocal variation or division |
| Roulant, Roulante |
(French) rolling |
| Round |
a short perpetual vocal canon in which all the
voices sing at the same pitch or at an octave to it |
| Rounded binary |
compositional form with two sections, in which the
second ends with a return to material from the first,
each section is usually repeated |
| Rovescio, Al |
a passage that can be performed in a reverse order;
a sequence of notes starting high and falling |
| Rozenice |
Istrian shawm (Croatia) |
| Ruan |
mellow sounding Chinese instrument played with a
plectrum and similar to the mandolin, once known as the
qin pipa (dating it to the Qin dynasty between
221-207 BC) or yue qin (moon mandolin), it is now
constructed as a family made up of xiao ruan
(soprano ruan), zhong ruan (alto ruan)
and da ruan (bass ruan), a development
intended to increase its range and effectiveness in the
modern Chinese orchestra
more... |
| Rubab |
Afghan plucked lute. It has a short neck with double
chambers and three main playing strings made of animal
gut or string. It also has several drone and sympathetic
metal strings |
| Rubato |
(Italian, literally 'robbed') a limited freedom of
rhythm and tempo when performing a piece of music; the
time extension applied to one note is taken from an
adjoining note or notes |
| Rub board |
the southern Louisiana version of the washboard,
used by Cajun and Zydeco musicians |
| Rubel |
Russian washboard |
| Rubible |
the rebec |
| Rücksicht |
(German) consideration |
| Rudement |
(French) roughly |
| Ruding |
the Jew's harp of the Kenyah and Kayan peoples of
Northern Borneo, both the wood and metal versions being
extremely thin and very fragile
more... |
| Rudl/rull |
Swedish and Norwegian country dance |
| Rudra vina |
also known as the bin (been), it appears to
be one of the oldest styles of vina. The evidence
is readily seen in elements of its construction, and
from its depiction on the walls of ancient temples. This
instrument is basically a bamboo stick with two gourds
attached. It has frets which are set into wax. This
instrument is quite rare nowadays. |
| Rueda |
a Spanish round dance in quintuple time |
| Ruff |
type of stroke in drum playing involving three rapid
strokes before the main one |
| Ruffles and Flourishes |
drum rolls (ruffles) and flourishes (selected brass
instruments) performed by U.S. bands to honour high
ranking dignitories the number of Ruffles and Flourishes
to be performed being set out in Table 2-1 of AR 600-25 |
| Ruhe |
(German) peace |
| Ruhepunkt, Ruhezeichen |
(German) the fermata sign |
| Ruhig |
(German) peaceful |
| Rullante, Tamburo |
(Italian) tenor drum |
| Rumba |
Cuban rhythms played at informal celebrations,
combining African drumming and Spanish or African vocal
traditions with improvised dancing and singing. There
are three kinds of rumba rhythms: guaguanco,
columbia and yambú. The instrumentation for
the rumba includes three tumbadoras and two
sticks or palitos. Two of the drums, the
tumbadora and the segundo or tres golpes,
play the basic rhythm and the quinto, which is a
higher pitched drum, plays improvised beats to guide the
dancers; also called rumba gitana or rumba
flamenca, this sensual style derives from the
Afro-Cuban rumba brought back from Cuba to Southern
Spain in the nineteenth-century |
| Rumba columbia |
a style of Cuban rumba developed at the end of the
nineteenth-century in the eastern province of Matanzas,
differing from other rumbas by having a 6/8 beat |
| Run |
rapid ascending or descending of notes which starts
with an embellishment; a roulade |
| Runddans |
Swedish round dance |
| Russo, Russa |
(Italian) Russian |
| Rustico |
(Italian) in a rustic manner |
| Rute, Ruthe |
(German) a birch brush used with the bass drum |
| RV |
after Peter Ryom the cataloguer of the music of
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) |
| Rinyu-gaku |
(Japanese) the music of Southern Asia, always
involving dances and pantomimes, that found its way to
ancient Japan |
| Rythme, Rythmique |
(French) rhythm, rhythmic |
| Ryuuteki |
Japanese flute |
