Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music

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125 motets; also many psalm settings, antiphons, graduales, of-

fertories, canticles, litanies, and other liturgical pieces—in all, more

than 550 sacred works.

RHEINBERGER, JOSEPH (GABRIEL) (17 MARCH 1839–25

NOVEMBER 1901). German composer, organist, conductor, and

teacher. A prodigiously prolific composer, he is best remembered

for his organ works. From 1864 until 1877, he was conductor of the

Munich Oratorio Society. From 1867 until his death, he taught at

the conservatory in Munich. In 1877 he became court Kapellmeister

in that city. As a Catholic church composer, he wrote much sacred

music in a style reminiscent of Johannes Brahms. Choral works in-

clude some one dozen masses (many with organ), Requiem settings,

Stabat mater settings, the cantata Der Stern von Bethlehem, op. 164,

for solo vv., chorus, orch., and org., motets, and other sacred pieces.

He also wrote secular works, among them, some with orchestra, and

many sets of partsongs, most of them for male chorus.

RICHAFORT, JEAN (BORN C. 1480; DIED AFTER 1547).

Franco-Flemish composer. Few details about his life are known

with certainty. He had ties with the French court under Louis XII

and François I (c. 1509–16). From 1542 until 1547 he was maître

de chapelle of St. Gilles in Bruges. His music, which builds on the

contrapuntal style of Josquin des Prez, was widely disseminated

throughout the 1500s. Among his works are 2 masses for four voices

and a Requiem for six (which borrows a chant-based canon from

Josquin), some 37 motets (mostly for four or five voices), and 18

chansons (for three to five voices).

RICHTER, KARL (15 OCTOBER 1926–15 FEBRUARY 1981).

German organist, harpsichordist, and conductor. In 1946 he was

appointed choirmaster of the Christuskirche in Leipzig, and a year

later he became organist at the Thomaskirche. From 1951 he taught

at the music conservatory in Munich. He is best remembered for his

recordings with the Munich Bach Choir and Munich Bach Orchestra

of Johann Sebastian Bach’s vocal works, which are notable for

their expressiveness, while disregarding trends of the time toward

historically informed performance practice.

RIDOUT, GODFREY (6 MAY 1918–24 NOVEMBER 1984). Ca-

nadian composer. He studied with Healey Willan at the Toronto

372 • RHEINBERGER, JOSEPH

Conservatory, where he later taught. From 1948 he taught at the

University of Toronto. He produced many radio drama scores and or-

chestral arrangements of popular music for the Canadian Broadcast-

ing Corporation, and some film scores for the National Film Board.

His eclectic style, while grounded in the music of such English

composers as Arthur Sullivan, Edward Elgar, and Gustav Holst,

is nevertheless boldly original, with bright, tonal melodies, striking

harmonies, syncopated rhythms, and brilliant orchestration—giving

it an appealing, North American character. His most effective choral

works are those with orchestra. They include the dramatic symphony

Esther, for S, Bar., SATB, and orch. (1952); Pange lingua, for SATB

and orch. (1960); Cantiones mysticae no. 3 “Dream of the Rood,” for

Bar./T, SATB, orch., and org. (1972); among others.

RIFKIN, JOSHUA (22 APRIL 1944– ). American musicologist and

conductor. He has been at the forefront of the debate about the size

of Johann Sebastian Bach’s performing forces, arguing that Bach’s

cantatas and oratorios were originally intended to be rendered by

soloists; that even ensemble movements were performed one to a

part. He has supported this position with performances and record-

ings, demonstrating that it is feasible in practice.

RIHM, WOLFGANG (13 MARCH 1952– ). German composer. He

was influential in the trend among German composers away from

the structuralism of composers such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz

Stockhausen, towards immediacy of expression—a movement

sometimes referred to as the “neue Einfachheit” (“New Simplicity”)

or “neue Subjektivität” (“New Subjectivity”). He has written in most

genres; his choral works include, among others, Dies, for S, A, T,

Bar., 2 spkrs., mixed chorus, children’s chorus, speaking chorus, and

orch. (1984); Communio (Lux aeterna), for Tr., A, chorus, and orch.

(11th movement of Requiem der Versöhnung); and Deus Passus

(Passion after St. Luke), for solo vv., chorus, and orch. (2000).

RILLING, HELMUTH (29 MAY 1933– ). German conductor, cho-

rus master, and organist; cofounder of the Oregon Bach Festival

(1970) and founder of the International Bach Academy of Stuttgart

(1981). In 1954 he established the Gächinger Kantorei; in 1965, the

Bach-Collegium (an orchestra of modern instruments). In 1957 he

was appointed organist and choral director at the Gedächtniskirche

RILLING, HELMUTH • 373

in Stuttgart. In 1969 he began teaching at the music conservatory

in Frankfurt and conducting the Frankfurter Kantorei. With these

organizations and others he has recorded all of Johann Sebastian

Bach’s ensemble works. He has appeared throughout the world with

his ensembles or as a guest conductor, performing a wide-ranging

repertoire. Throughout his career he has stressed the importance of

making performances meaningful to the contemporary listener. For

this reason he has downplayed the importance of period instruments

and techniques.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, NIKOLAI (6/18 MARCH 1844–8/21 JUNE

1908). Russian composer, conductor, editor, and teacher. Despite a

lack of formal training in composition (he received informal tutor-

ing from Mily Balakirev), he quickly gained a reputation as one of

Russia’s leading composers, being grouped with four other nationalist

composers in what collectively came to be known as “The Five” (the

others were Balakirev, Aleksandr Borodin, César Cui, and Modest

Mussorgsky). In 1871 he was appointed to a position at the St. Pe-

tersburg Conservatory, where he taught himself in secret. From 1883

to 1894 he served as Balakirev’s deputy at the imperial court chapel,

which led him to compose a substantial body of sacred music.

Rimsky-Korsakov was highly influential as an editor of Russian

music, as a teacher of two generations of Russian composers (among

them, Igor Stravinsky), and as the author of textbooks on harmony

and orchestration. As a composer, he is best remembered for vividly

descriptive orchestral works and (in Russia) for his operas. His choral

works are all on Russian texts; among them are several collections of

secular partsongs, a few pieces with orchestra, and collections of un-

accompanied sacred works comprising some 40 individual pieces.

RITORNELLO. An instrumental interlude, periodically repeated. In

vocal compositions of the Baroque era, it functions as introduction,

interlude, and/or conclusion. In the Baroque instrumental concerto,

the term designates a repeated passage for full orchestra (tutti), which

alternates episodically with contrasting material.

ROBERT, PIERRE (BORN C. 1618; BURIED 30 DECEMBER

1699). French composer. Trained at Notre Dame, he returned there in

1653 as maître de chapelle. He continued in the position until 1663,

when Louis XIV appointed him one of four sous-maîtres in his royal

374 • RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, NIKOLAI

chapel. In 1672 he was appointed compositeur de la musique, a posi-

tion he held jointly with Henry Du Mont. In 1683 he resigned from

the royal chapel for reasons unknown. All of his surviving works are

sacred. Chief among them are 24 grands motets published in 1684

by order of the king (along with 12 works by Jean-Baptiste Lully).

Also extant are 10 petits motets for two to four voices, published as

a set in 1688, and two other small-scale motets.

ROBERT SHAW CHORALE. See SHAW, ROBERT.

ROGER WAGNER CHORALE. See WAGNER, ROGER.

ROGIER, PHILIPPE (C. 1561–29 FEBRUARY 1596). Franco-

Flemish composer, active in Spain. In 1592 he became a chorister in

the chapel of Philip II, where he remained for the rest of his career, be-

coming vice maestro de Capilla in 1584 and advancing two years later

to the position of maestro de capilla. Unfortunately, of the hundreds of

his pieces known to have existed in the early 17th century (including

especially motets, chansons, and villancicos), only a few survive: 7

masses (for four to 12 voices), 20 motets (for four to 12 voices), a few

psalm settings, and a handful of chansons (for five or six voices). In

style the motets resemble the works of Clemens non Papa and Nico-

las Gombert, while the chansons show progressive, adventurous traits

in harmony and rhythm, including extensive syncopation.

ROMERO, MATEO [BORN MATTHIEU ROSMARIN] (C. 1575–

10 MAY 1647). Spanish composer of Franco-Flemish birth. In

1586 he became a singer in the chapel of Philip II. Shortly after the

ascension of Philip III in 1598, he became the maestro de capilla.

He held the post until retiring in 1633, along with other positions at

the court. During those three decades, he introduced the new styles

being developed in Italy. His surviving compositions include some

11 masses (5 of them for eight voices, the others for four or five),

3 Magnificat settings (for eight voices), 16 motets (for four to 16

voices) and 9 villancicos (for four or five voices). A good number of

them include continuo parts. Also extant are several dozen secular

works for two or more voices.

RONDEAU. One of the French formes fixes, with the pattern

AbaAabAB (where letters designate musical units, and the use of up-

percase letters indicates repetition of text as well as music).

RONDEAU • 375

RORE, CYPRIANO DE (BORN 1515/16; DIED 11/20 SEPTEM-

BER 1565). Franco-Flemish composer. He may have studied with

Adrian Willaert in Venice. By 1546, when he was evidently ap-

pointed maestro di cappella at the court of Duke Ercole II in Ferrara,

he had already published many motets and madrigals. He remained

in Ferrara until 1558, when he made two trips to his homeland.

Shortly after returning to Italy in 1559, Ercole II died. When he

was not reappointed by Ercole’s successor, Alfonso II, he moved in

1560 to the Farnese court in Parma. In 1563 he succeeded Willaert

as maestro di cappella at San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica) in Venice

but, finding the position unsatisfactory, returned to Parma the fol-

lowing year.

Rore is best remembered for more than 100 surviving madrigals,

whose increasingly expressive harmonic and melodic language

greatly influenced the development of the genre. Also surviving are

more than a dozen Latin-texted secular compositions, some of which

were published in books of madrigals.

While some of his works appeared in volumes devoted to his mu-

sic alone, many were published in anthologies. It is clear that he was

very famous: frequent references to him as “il divino Cipriano” and

the fact that his works continued to appear in print for four decades

after his death attest to his enduring renown.

He was one of the first composers to prefer five-voice texture. His

early madrigals often use Petrarchan texts; after 1550, however,

he turned to the works of contemporary poets, which allowed him

to explore a greater emotional range. It was these highly expressive

works that later led Claudio Monteverdi to identify him as a founder

of the seconda pratica.

Rore’s Latin motets (which are beset by problems of attribution)

number about 50 (some 35 of which are for five voices). Most of

them seem to have been written early in his career. Styles range from

prevailing imitation to a combination of polyphonic and homopho-

nic passages. His four securely attributed masses (all but one for five

voices) include two in which he demonstrated his skill in traditional

Franco-Flemish polyphony and paid tribute to Josquin des Prez. The

Missa Vivat felix Hercules, as in Josquin’s similar mass, employs a

soggetto cavato as cantus firmus (its notes consisting of solmiza-

tion syllables suggested by the title), while the seven-voice Missa

Praeter rerum seriem is based on one of Josquin’s motets. The other

376 • RORE, CYPRIANO DE

two masses are in a chordal style typical of his later work. Both are

chanson-based parody masses. His few other liturgical pieces in-

clude two Magnificats and a handful of four-voice psalm settings.

A St. John Passion of 1557 may also be his.

ROREM, NED (23 OCTOBER 1923– ). American composer and

writer. After studying at Northwestern University (1940–42) and the

Curtis Institute (1943), he served as secretary and music copyist to

Virgil Thomson, then graduated from the Juilliard School (BA 1947,

MM 1949). For two summers he studied with Aaron Copland at

Tanglewood (1946, 1947). From 1951 until 1957 he lived in Paris,

where he studied with Arthur Honegger and became acquainted

with Francis Poulenc. Inspired by these models he developed a

primarily diatonic, though harmonically enriched style. Best remem-

bered as a composer of songs, he also wrote a sizeable body of choral

works, among which are some one dozen pieces with orchestra, about

30 works (or collections of pieces) with keyboard (many of them

with organ), and about as many unaccompanied pieces (or sets of

pieces), on both sacred and secular texts.

Examples of works with orchestra or instrumental ensemble in-

clude Little Prayers, for S, Bar., SATB, and orch. (1973); An Ameri-

can Oratorio, for T, SATB, and orch. (1983); A Whitman Cantata,

for male vv., brass, and timp. (1983); Homer (Three Scenes from The

Iliad), for SATB, fl., ob., bn., tpt., pf., and 3 str. (1986); Te Deum

(with text from the Book of Common Prayer), for SATB, 2 tpt., 2

trbn., and org. (1987); and Goodbye My Fancy, an oratorio for Mez.,

Bar., SATB, and orch. (1990). Compositions with keyboard include

some half-dozen psalm settings with organ, among them, Truth in

the Night Season [Psalm 92:1–5] (1966). Examples of unaccompa-

nied works include From an Unknown Past, comprising seven cho-

ruses (1951), and Missa brevis, for S, A, T, B, and SATB (1973).

ROSENMÜLLER, JOHANN (BORN C. 1619; BURIED 12 SEP-

TEMBER 1684). German organist, composer, and teacher who spent

much of his career in Italy, and helped bring Italian style to Germany.

He was a teaching assistant at the Thomasschule, Leipzig, from 1642;

and organist at Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche, 1651–55. In 1658, after es-

caping from prison for alleged homosexual misconduct, he moved

to Venice, where he served as composer at the Ospedale della pietà,

1678–82. Toward the end of his life, he returned to Germany, where

ROSENMÜLLER, JOHANN • 377

his works were widely disseminated. His surviving vocal works are

almost all sacred, and include mass movements and canticle settings

with instruments, German funeral songs (for five voices), and works

that may variously be called concerted motets or cantatas: 2 vol-

umes of Kernspüche (with both Latin and German texts) for one to

five voices, strings, and continuo, 100-plus Latin works for one to 10

voices with instrumental accompaniment, and 30-plus German works

with similar scoring. Much of his music has apparently survived only

in German sources, the main one being the Bokemeyer Collection.

ROSETTI, ANTONIO (C. 1750–30 JUNE 1792). Bohemian com-

poser and double bass player. Evidently his birth name was Rösler

or Rössler; he adopted the Italian form sometime before 1773. After

receiving a Jesuit education in Bohemia, he moved to the Augsburg

area, where he joined the court orchestra of Kraft Ernst, Prince von

Oettingen-Wallerstein. In 1781 he was granted a leave of absence to

visit Paris, which established his reputation, especially as a composer

of symphonies. He returned to Wallerstein in the following year. In

1785 he advanced to the position of Kapellmeister, after which he

focused on improving church music at the court. Although best re-

membered for his instrumental works, his choral compositions are sig-

nificant. Surviving works include the oratorios Der sterbende Jesus

(1786) and Jesus in Gethsemane (1790), a few cantatas, more than

a dozen masses, four Requiem settings (one of which was sung at a

1791 memorial service for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Prague), a

Te Deum, additional liturgical works, and a few secular pieces.

ROSSI, SALAMONE (?19 AUGUST 1570–C. 1630). Italian com-

poser and instrumentalist. His vocal ensemble music consists of a vol-

ume of canzonettas for three voices (1589), a volume of madrigals

for four voices (1614), a book of balletti for three voices (1617), and

five volumes of madrigals for five voices (1600–22). The madrigals

are generally conservative in style, notwithstanding the inclusion of a

chitarrone tablature in the first volume for five voices, and continuo

parts in subsequent ones (though only those in the later volumes have

figures). Additional works include Hashirim asher lish’lomo (The

Songs of Solomon [Rossi]), containing 33 polyphonic settings of He-

brew psalms, hymns, and synagogal songs for three to eight voices;

and the trio-like Madrigaletti per cantar a due soprani o tenori, op.

13, principally for two voices and continuo (1628).

378 • ROSETTI, ANTONIO

ROSSINI, GIOACCHINO ANTONIO (29 FEBRUARY 1792–13

NOVEMBER 1868). Italian composer known for his operas, espe-

cially The Barber of Seville (1816), Cinderella (1817), Semiramide

(1823), and William Tell (1829). He began his career in Bologna,

then conquered Venice, Naples, London, and Paris, where he became

music director of the Théâtre Italien. When the Bourbon monarchy

was overthrown in 1830, he had to litigate to have his commissions

honored. In 1836 he moved back to Italy, where he composed little

for nearly two decades. Plagued by ill health, he decided to return

to Paris in 1855, where his health improved and where he began to

compose again.

Rossini’s relatively few choral works include primarily a Stabat

mater, for soloists, chorus, and orch. (1832—six of the 12 move-

ments spurious; rev. 1841, all movements by Rossini); Trois choeurs

religieux, for female vv. and pf. (1844); and Petite messe solennelle,

for four solo vv., chorus 8 vv., 2 pf., and hmn. (1863; rev. with orch.,

1869); among various other cantatas, incidental music, hymns, and

choruses. During his later years he composed more than 150 chamber

pieces for private performance, which he would not permit to be pub-

lished. Among these are Péchés de vieillesse—“Sins of Old Age,”

as he called them, which include piano pieces, songs, and works for

vocal ensemble.

ROUND. A canon at the unison or octave, for three or more voices.

See also CATCH.

RUBBRA, EDMUND (23 MAY 1901–14 FEBRUARY 1986). Eng-

lish composer, pianist, critic, and teacher. He composed prolifically,

working in most genres. Having studied with Gustav Holst, he de-

veloped a style that was conservative, yet original. His music demon-

strates a gift for melody and a predilection for counterpoint, modal

harmonies, organic formal procedures (rather than predetermined

ones), and meditative effects (rather than dramatic ones).

Much of his choral music (which includes some 90 individual

pieces) was informed by his religious affinities, which ranged from

Roman Catholicism to Buddhism and Taoism. Examples of his many

unaccompanied works include Five Motets, op. 37, for voice combi-

nations ranging from SAB to SSAATTBB (1934); Nine Tenebrae

Motets, op. 72 (1951–61); Festival Gloria (Latin), op. 94, for S,

Bar., and SSAATTBB (1957); Lauda Sion, op. 110, for S, Bar., and

RUBBRA, EDMUND • 379

SSMTTBB (1960). Examples of accompanied works include The

Dark Night of the Soul, The Morning Watch, op. 55, for SATB and

orch. (1946); Song of the Soul, op. 41/1, for C, SATB, and small orch.

(1942); and Inscape, op. 122, for SATB, strs., and hp./pf. (1965).

Other liturgical compositions by Rubbra include the Missa cantu-

ariensis, op. 59, for SSAATTBB with org. in the Credo (1945); the

unaccompanied Missa in honorem Sancti Dominici, op. 66, for SATB

(1948, composed in celebration of his conversion to Catholicism); 3

missae breves; and canticle settings, among them, an English Mag-

nificat and Nunc Dimittis, op. 65, for SATB and org. (1949) and a

Latin Te Deum, op. 115, for SSAATTBB (1962).

In view of his many sacred works, the paucity of psalm settings

is surprising. Of special significance to the composer was his choral

Symphony no. 9 (Sinfonia sacra), which combines symphonic writ-

ing and an oratorio-like form to recount the story of Christ’s cruci-

fixion, resurrection, and ascension.

RUFFO, VINCENZO (C. 1508–9 FEBRUARY 1587). Italian church

musician and composer. He was trained in Verona, where he later

became music director at the Accademia Filarmonica and maestro

di cappella at the cathedral. From 1563 to 1572 he was maestro di

cappella at the cathedral in Milan. There he came under the influ-

ence of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, a leader

in the post-Tridentine push to simplify the textures of sacred vocal

works for the sake of textual intelligibility. A prolific composer, he

wrote many volumes of both sacred and secular works before turning

exclusively to sacred composition in 1563. His madrigals (most of

which are for five voices) are lively, yet harmonically conservative.

In his sacred works he employed a style reminiscent of Clemens non

Papa and Nicolas Gombert until he came under the influence of

Borromeo, when he switched to a more chordal style (especially in

his masses), becoming an influential supporter of the aesthetic ideals

of the Counter-Reformation.

RUTTER, JOHN (24 SEPTEMBER 1945– ). English composer,

choral conductor, editor, and arranger. From 1976 he was director

of music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he himself had been a

student. In 1979 he turned to working full time as a composer and

choral conductor. Two years later he founded the Cambridge Singers,

a professional choir with whom he has since recorded extensively.

380 • RUFFO, VINCENZO

Rutter is a prolific choral composer, writing in an accessible,

tonal style, characterized by a natural lyricism, amiable harmo-

nies, and idiomatic accompaniments—qualities that have made

his works highly popular and commercially successful, especially

in North America. His many small pieces include original scores

and arrangements of folksongs, often with piano accompaniment.

Among larger-scale works are The Falcon, for chorus, opt. boys’

chorus, and orch. (1969); Gloria, for chorus, brass ens., timp.,

perc., and org. (1974, arr. chorus, orch., 1988); Requiem, for S,

SATB, chbr. orch./(org., fl., ob., hp., vc., timp., glock.); Magni-

ficat, for S/Mez., chorus, and orch./org. (1990); and Mass of the

Children, for S, Bar. children’s choir, SATB, and orch./chbr. ens.

(2003). He edited the 1893 version of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem

and, with David Willcocks, four volumes of Carols for Choirs

(Oxford University Press).

– S –

SACRED CONCERTO. In the Baroque era, a sacred work for voices

and instruments. As the genre developed, it increasingly exploited

the principle of contrast inherent in the concerto principle. During

the 17th century in German-speaking lands, Geistliches Konzert des-

ignated a work for voices and instruments, usually in sections, and

on a biblical text. Sacred concertos were composed by Andrea and

Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Pachelbel, and Diet-

rich Buxtehude, among many others. See also CONCERTANTE;

CONCERTATO STYLE.

SAINT OLAF CHOIR. The premier choral ensemble of St. Olaf Col-

lege (Northfield, Minnesota), an undergraduate institution associated

with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It was

founded in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen, who originally named

it the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir. He directed the choir until 1943,

when he was succeeded by his son, Olaf C. Christiansen. Subsequent

conductors have included Kenneth Jennings (from 1968) and Anton

Armstrong (from 1990). Since its inception, the choir has special-

ized in a cappella performance of sacred choral literature. It has

achieved widespread renown through its annual appearances in the

SAINT OLAF CHOIR • 381