Slentando

Slentando is a less common Italian tempo direction meaning ‘slackening’ or ‘slowing down’. It is closely related to rallentando but typically implies a more relaxed, almost casual deceleration — the music simply settles, rather than dramatically winding down.

You will encounter slentando more often in 18th and early 19th-century scores than in modern repertoire. Some editors regard it as essentially synonymous with rallentando; others differentiate it as gentler, less goal-directed. It often appears in lyrical, dance-derived passages where a slight slackening seems to give the music room to breathe before the next phrase begins.

The marking does not necessarily lead to a cadence. Sometimes slentando occupies the middle of a phrase, easing the music briefly before normal tempo resumes. This expressive flexibility — slowing without explicitly building toward something — is part of what makes slentando feel relaxed rather than rhetorical.

Italian gerund of allentare (‘to slacken, loosen’), with an s- prefix (apocope of dialectal forms). Related to lento (‘slow’).

Treat slentando as a momentary loosening rather than a structural ritardando. The tempo should resume naturally — there is no need for an explicit a tempo if the line already wants to recover its original pulse.