Red Like Roses

"Red Like Roses" is Ruby Rose's music theme, featured in the "Red" Trailer and incorporated in the RWBY: Volume 1 Soundtrack.

Composition
The music starts off at 70 bpm with an acoustic guitar playing a distinctive, sad-sounding melody over arpeggiated guitar chords, followed by the verse.

After the verse, the music's tempo considerably picks up to 200 bpm (with a time signature of 6/4), in sync with the action of the battle. An extended Spanish-tinged acoustic guitar solo plays over strings and heavy percussion, lending a rather romantic and exciting feel to the piece.

The music then rests momentarily, before continuing with a faster tempo (201bpm), in a reprise of the opening melody in a fast-paced string arrangement.

Musically, the intro and first part of the verse are in B minor, with a key change to D minor occurring halfway through the first verse (at the line "Black the beast..."). The majority of the solo stays in the key of D minor, but the song momentarily returns to its original key at the beginning of the 'reprise' section, before again changing to D minor.

The verse and reprise sections are in 4/4 time (at different tempos), with the solo in 6/4 time.

The opening melody is a leitmotif of sorts for Ruby, and arrangements of it can be found in many places on the RWBY Volume 1 Soundtrack, especially during scenes focusing on the character.

Trivia

 * The lyrics indirectly describe the four main characters as Red, White, Black and Yellow.
 * "Red Like Roses Part II," another song on the RWBY soundtrack, is a thematic follow-up to this song, specifically the Red verse. The song plays as Ruby decapitates the Nevermore in "Players and Pieces."
 * Judging from Red Like Roses Part II and Jeff Williams' explanation of that song, the first verse of the lyrics may be a reference to Ruby and the death of Summer Rose.
 * "Red like roses" is a reference to blood.
 * "Fills my dreams" means that she dreams about the day that Summer died.
 * "And brings me to the place you rest" means the memory causes her to revisit Summer's grave.