Pesante

Pesante (Italian pronunciation: [peˈzante]) is a musical term, meaning "heavy and ponderous." It is often used in Latin languages, such as Spanish or Portuguese, with the word pesado meaning heavy in both of these languages. The French equivalent is pesant.

In performance, "pesante" is often interpreted as a tempo term. It usually is applied as an immediate pulling back of a previous tempo. While this is not the textbook application of this term, it has gained widespread use among performing musicians. Pesante tempo is usually in between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm) as it is supposed to create a heavy dragging feeling. It is usually in loud pieces of music.