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Slow. The standard French tempo marking.
French composers from Debussy onward preferred French to Italian markings. Lent appears throughout Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, and Messiaen. It carries a specifically French aesthetic — fluid, unhurried, sensuous.
Debussy's "La Mer," third movement opening — Lent passages of shimmering orchestral color.
Lent 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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