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How is rauh played?
The performer roughens the timbre itself — a harsh, grainy, raw sound rather than a clean, polished one. As a German character direction it targets sound quality, asking the player to let the tone scrape and rasp instead of smoothing it out. It modifies timbre rather than tempo and is at home in the modern expressive vocabulary where harshness is a deliberate color. The marking lives close to 'hart' and 'derb' but points specifically at a raw, abrasive surface.
How does rauh sound?
A harsh, grainy, raw sonority with a deliberately abrasive surface.
In context
'rauh' (modern spelling 'rau') is the German for rough/harsh/coarse and is used as a timbral character marking calling for a raw, abrasive tone. It belongs to the German-language expressive tradition; specific composer attributions should be verified per score.