DE sehr feierlich und sehr langsam tempo advanced Support my free tools
How is sehr feierlich und sehr langsam played?
Play very solemnly and very slowly, preserving both layers and both occurrences of sehr. The first sehr intensifies the dignified, elevated character of feierlich; the second intensifies the low speed of langsam. The doubled degree word makes the heading unusually emphatic, but “very” is contextual rather than a mathematical limit: the score still determines exact pace, weight and intensity. Bruckner prints the full clause over the Seventh Symphony Adagio, a movement later bound to the history surrounding Wagner’s death; that work-specific association must not turn the phrase itself into a universal memorial code. Aim for spacious, grave and reverent playing without assuming one BPM, uniform heaviness or a mandatory dynamic.
How does sehr feierlich und sehr langsam sound?
Vast, hushed and reverent — solemnity and slowness taken to their fullest extreme.
Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam, very solemn and very slow, layers an intensified mood word onto an intensified tempo word: it describes an affect, not a speed. Like its finale counterpart, it's also a printed heading in Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, this time for the Adagio, and carries the same caveat: any metronome figure attached to early editions belongs to that same disputed Gutmann-era print history, not to the phrase as a general term.
In context
Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony provides a prominent repertoire example, printing the complete Adagio heading Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam. Duden’s meanings keep its two functions distinct: feierlich contributes solemn, dignified character, while langsam contributes slow tempo, and each is intensified by its own sehr. This supports a broad, reverent reading while qualifying claims that the words fix an absolute extreme. The Wagner association belongs to the movement’s history, not to the general definition. No stable general abbreviation was established, so the full clause and both degree words remain written out.
Equivalent terms
- EN very solemn and very slow
- DA meget højtideligt og meget langsomt