Lentando

What it means

Lentando is derived from the base word lento, “slow,” and calls for a gradual slowing down. The ending -ando, as with rallentando and accelerando, designates a process: the slowing begins at the notated point and develops over a stretch.

In substance lentando agrees with rallentando and ritardando but is distinctly rarer. Where a distinction is made at all, it is credited with a particularly soft, as it were yielding colouring — the music becomes slower because it comes to rest, not because it is braked. This gradation is not reliable, though; composers use the three words largely interchangeably. Clearly to be distinguished, by contrast, is ritenuto: there the tempo is pulled back immediately, not gradually.

In the notation

The word stands in italics above the staff and applies from that point. For a longer effect, some editions carry a dashed line along with it. The end is marked by a tempo, tempo primo, or a new tempo marking; if none is given, the effect ends with the section. Often a decrescendo hairpin stands alongside it as well, because the yielding is usually connected with a pulling back of the volume.

Musical use

The marking stands before section boundaries and at points where the movement is to come to rest: before a fermata, at the end of a movement, at the transition into a slower part. Because it is rarer than rallentando, it seems at such points like a nuance deliberately chosen by the composer.

The marking has the same meaning as rallentando and calls for a gradual slowing.

Performance practice

Decide where the slowing is to arrive before you begin it, and distribute it evenly over the available note values. Think in steps: each beat a little longer than the previous one. Keep the notes sounding as you do so — if the tone thins along with the tempo, the passage seems like getting stuck. In ensemble, take your bearings from the part with the slowest movement, for there the stretching becomes audible first.