Dictionary of Music - Birding America

omanesca 353volume, and violent stage antics; thrash, deathmetal, and speed metal, more extreme and stillangrier versions of heavy metal; blues rock, solid,intensely rhythmic, electrically amplified blues,with vocal styles heavily influenced by soul music;country rock, a combination of rock rhythmswith largely southern rural white folk music, withelements of gospel music; punk rock, later callednew wave or hardcore, uncomplicated, rough,percussive rock with lyrics expressing strong antiestablishmentprotest, often deliberately offensive;art rock or progressive rock, a combination ofclassical music and rock, which began in GreatBritain with “translations” of traditional music intorock by clever recording-studio tricks and thenbecame, in New York, a kind of reductionism,reducing rock to its basic elements (an outstandingart-rock figure was Frank Zappa and his band, theMothers of Invention); and jazz rock or fusion, acombination of jazz and rock. By the 1980s manyof the features of these forms had been combinedand recombined, so that it was not always possibleto distinguish between one or another kind of rock.Thus alternative rock, a development of the mid-1980s, blended the progressive social causes of folkrock and punk rock with experimental musicaltouches. See also BLUES; COUNTRY MUSIC; GOSPELMUSIC; RHYTHM AND BLUES; SOUL.rococo (English rə kō′kō; French rô kô kō′). Aterm borrowed from painting and other visual arts todescribe a light, highly ornamented style used bycertain eighteenth-century composers, especially inkeyboard music. It is virtually the same as the GAL-LANT STYLE. See also PRECLASSIC.Rodgers (rä′jərz), Richard, 1902–1979. AnAmerican composer who became known for hismusical comedies, outstanding particularly for theirmelodies. Beginning with his first great success, TheGirl Friend (1926), Rodgers went on to write suchshows as A Connecticut Yankee (1927), The Boysfrom Syracuse (1938), On Your Toes (1936), and PalJoey (1940), all with lyrics by Lorenz Hart(1895–1943). After Hart’s death Rodgers found anew collaborator in Oscar Hammerstein II(1895–1960), with whom he wrote two of the mostsuccessful musical comedies ever written, Oklahoma(1943) and South Pacific (1949). Their otherworks include Carousel (1945), The King And I(1951), The Flower Drum Song (1958), and TheSound of Music (1959). Rodgers also wrote NoStrings (1962), Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), and Twoby Two (1970).roll A series of very rapid, even drumbeats that givethe effect of a single sustained sound. On the snaredrum a roll is played by alternating double beats witheach hand; on the bass drum it is played by alternatingthe heads of the double-headed beater. On thetenor drum a single-stroke roll is produced by a rapidsuccession of single beats. See also under TIMPANI.romance (English rō mans′, rô′mans; French rōmäNs′). Also, German, Romanze (rō män′dze).1 A lyrical (songlike) piece for instruments, voice, orboth. Examples include Fauré’s Romance for violinand orchestra, op. 28; Beethoven’s two Romanzen,for violin and orchestra, op. 40 and op. 50; Schumann’sDrei Romanzen (“Three Romances”) foroboe and piano, op. 94, and Romanzen for chorus,op. 67 and op. 75. 2 A slow, lyrical movement withina longer work. Examples include the second movementsof Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor, K.466, and Schumann’s Symphony no. 4.romanesca (rô mä nes′kä) Italian. A pattern ofbass harmonies that was used again and again bycomposers of songs and dances during the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries. (See the accompanyingexample for the exact pattern; the rectangular notesfig. 200 p/u from p. 369are double whole notes, each having the value oftwo whole notes.) Like the passamezzo, folia, andsimilar bass patterns, the romanesca was used as abass for continuous variations in pieces for lute, guitar,vihuela, violin, or a keyboard instrument (seealso OSTINATO). In songs, the singer often improviseda melody in the top part. The romanesca wasparticularly popular in Italy and Spain. Among thosewho used it are the Spanish composers Luis de