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radioelectric instruments: Electrophones, such as the analog synthesizer, in which the oscillations of electric circuits are amplified and transformed into audible vibrations by electric speakers. Radioelectric instruments are commonly referred to as ìanalog electronic instruments as the electric oscillations are ìanalogous to the acoustic vibrations created by the speaker.

rag-dung: Tibetan trumpet (aerophone).

range:The distance between the highest and lowest pitches that can be sung or played by a voice or instrument.

rap: The genre of musical expression which arose out of the hip-hop movement.

Ras Tafari: See Emperor Haile Selassie.

Rastafarianism: A religious movement that originated in Jamaica, venerating the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (ìRas Tafari).

reed: A thin strip of wood, metal or plastic, which is fixed at one end and free on the other. It produces sound when set into vibration by moving air. Reeds may be classified as single reeds and double reeds and instruments which use reeds to make their sound are called ìreed instruments.

reel: A genre of Scottish and Irish dance music typically played by the bagpipes. A couples dance, the reel originated in Scotland as early as the sixteenth century. See also strathspey.

refrain: A fixed stanza of text and music which recurs between the verses of a strophic song.

refugee: A person who is forced to migrate and who cannot return to his or her homeland.

reggae: A style of urban Jamaican popular music that originated among the Rastafarians of Jamaica in the 1960s.

register: A subset of the range of a voice or instrument.

rekrek: The vocal slides characteristic of the geëez mode in Ethiopian Christian chant.

relative tuning: The singing or playing of music at a pitch level determined by what is comfortable to the singer or instrumentalist. Contrast with fixed tuning.

revival: A formerly dormant tradition which is re-invigorated through its reintroduction or reinvention (not necessarily by its community of origin).

rhythm: The temporal relationships within music.

rhythmic cycle: An asymmetrical repeating rhythmic sequence which may be subdivided in complex and constantly changing ways. Prominent examples are the rhythmic systems from South Asia and the Middle East.

ridim: Insider term for the various marked rhythmic properties of reggae in which are coded much of the "subversiveness" of the Rastafarian subculture and its associated soundscape.

rite: A prescribed or customary act or observance.

ritual: Either an established set of rites or the observance of such a set of rites.

rnga: Tibetan frame drum.

rol-mo: Tibetan cymbals (concussion idiophones).

ru: A Vietnamese lullaby.

rubboard: A scraped idiophone made of metal used in the Zydeco tradition.