Lento (music)

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Lento ( Italian for “slow, pliable, supple, loose”, cf. New High German “lind”; French lent, lentement ) in the meaning of “slow” is a musical performance designation and can be proven as a tempo regulation since the early 17th century ( Michael Praetorius , Polyhymnia caduceatrix , 1619).

The distinction between the seldom used Lento and Largo (Italian for “broad”) and Adagio (for example “sedate, cozy”) is uncertain; but in the 18th century, when the norm was established that a largo was slower than an adagio , Lento seems to mean a lecture that is as slow, if not as weighty, as that of a largo .

According to Rousseau (1767), Lent is the French analogue of the Italian Largo . Haydn's rule Adagio non lento ( Hob . III No. 4) presupposes that a Lento is slower than an Adagio . The Lento assai in the third movement of Beethoven's String Quartet op. 135 means very slowly . In Chopin's waltz op. 69.1 , Lento features a slow waltz tempo.

Individual evidence

  1. Wieland Ziegenrücker: General music theory with questions and tasks for self-control. German Publishing House for Music, Leipzig 1977; Paperback edition: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, and Musikverlag B. Schott's Söhne, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-442-33003-3 , p. 55.