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Music Terms Glossary - R
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ragtime A type of popular American music, usually for piano, that arose around 1900 and contributed to the emergence of jazz.

range The pitch distance between the lowest note and the highest note of an instrument, a composition, or an individual part.

recapitulation The third principal section of a movement in sonata form whose function is to resolve the harmonic conflicts set up in the exposition and development.

recitative A flexible style of vocal delivery employed in opera, oratorio, and cantata and tailored to the accents and rhythms of the text.

reduction The compression of a complex, multi-stave score onto one or two staves.

reed In wind instruments such as the clarinet and oboe, a small vibrating element made of cane that serves as all (double reed) or part (single reed) of the mouthpiece.

register The relative location within the range of a voice or an instrument, such as "the piercing upper register of the oboe. "

resolution A move from a dissonance to a consonance.

rest (I) In music, a brief silence; (2) in musical notation, a sign indicating such a silence.

retransition In sonata form, the passage that leads from the harmonic instability of the development to the stability of the recapitulation.

retrograde Playing a theme backward.

rhythm (1) The pattern in time created by the incidence and duration of individual sounds; (2) used more loosely to refer to a particular rhythm, for example, "a dotted rhythm." rhythm & blues (R&B) A term coined in 1949 to describe the heavily rhythmic urban blues cultivated mainly by Midwestern African-American musicians.

rhythmic background The subdivisions of beats within a regular meter.

rhythmic foreground The regular beats provided by meter.

ripieno The largest of the two instrumental groups in a Baroque concerto grosso.

ritard; ritardando Slowing down the tempo.

ritornello (Italian, "the little thing that returns") A recurring theme in eighteenth-century arias and concertos.

ritornello form Baroque instrumental form based on recurrences of a ritornello.

rock'n'roll(rock) Style of popular vocal music, often for dancing, that developed in the United States and England during the 1950s, characterized by a hard, driving duple meter and amplified instrumental accompaniment. Currently the most widespread musical style in the world.

rondo A musical form in which a main theme alternates with other themes or sections, for example, A-B-A-C-A.

round A simple sung canon in which all voices enter on the same note after the same time interval.

rubato "Robbed" time; the subtle pressing forward and holding back the tempo in performance.

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