rallentando - gradually getting slower.
range - the pitch distance between the highest and lowest note of a melody, voice, or instrument.
rapidamente - rapidly.
rattenuto - holding back.
realization, to realize - filling in the harmony of a figured bass.
recitative - a declamatory prose style of singing in operas, oratorios, and cantatas.
refrain - recurrent lines of text and music at the end of each stanza of a song.
register - the general pitch level of a part, voice, or instrument (e.g., soprano implies a high register, bass a low register).
registration - the combinations of stops used in an organ composition.
relative keys - major and minor keys which have the same key signature (e.g., C major and A minor are relative keys).
religioso - solemnly, in a devout manner.
replicazione - repetition.
requiem - a Mass for the Dead, set to music for solo voices and chores.
responsorial - in plainsong, a section for solo voice followed by a section for chorus in unison.
rhapsody - a free fantasy, usually of heroic or national character, and often brilliant in style.
rhumba (rumba) - a Cuban dance with complex rhythm, much syncopation, and repetition of an eight-bar theme.
rhythm - the time element in music which is determined by accent and/or duration of tones.
rigaudon (English: rigadoon) - a seventeenth century Provenqal dance in lively duple or quadruple time. Something like a Bourrée, with the phrases beginning on the last quarter of the bar.
rigore - strictness.
rinforzando - reinforced 
ripetizione - repetition.
risoluto - bold, resolved.
ritardando - gradually getting slower.
ritenuto - suddenly slower, held back.
romance - a piece that is song-like, sentimental and tender in character.
rondino - a small or easy rondo.
rondo - French 'rondeau' a piece in which the main theme keeps recurring with different episodes between - ABACA. A more modern form is extended to ABACAB and coda.
root - the tone on which a chord is built.
rubato - robbed, taking a portion of time from one note and giving it to another.
rustico - rural, rustic.
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