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Yield, give way — slow down slightly. The French equivalent of ritardando.
Cédez is gentler than ritardando — it implies yielding rather than braking. Use it in French-style compositions for moments where the tempo should relax gracefully, as if the music is taking a breath.
Throughout Debussy's piano music — "cédez un peu" (yield a little) appears at phrase endings, creating the characteristic Debussyan ebb and flow.
Cédez is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
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