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Holding back, restraining the tempo.
Similar to ritenuto but with the French implication of gentle restraint rather than abrupt change. Debussy uses it to gradually pull back the tempo before a new section.
Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" — en retenant passages lead into the return of the opening flute theme.
En retenant 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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