Willem Pijper was a pivotal figure in 20th-century Dutch music, and this piece exhibits his characteristic harmonic ambiguity and rhythmic complexity. It is an exploration of color and structure rather than traditional melody.
At Henle 5 this is a late-intermediate piece — technically substantial, with musical demands to match. The main demands: chord voicing — bringing out one note inside a handful of others; several simultaneous layers, each needing its own dynamic level; and precise articulation — the difference between crisp and blurred is the piece.
The player must master the layered textures to ensure clear voicing of the inner polyphonic lines.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
A level or two down with the same spirit — ideal if this piece is still out of reach.
Where this piece's skills lead: slightly harder works making similar technical demands.
De lente komt is rated Henle level 5 of 9 — late intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 6–7. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 7.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 5 — meaning you can already play level 4–5 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of De lente komt lasts about 2 minutes.
De lente komt is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include Clair de lune - piano by Claude Debussy, Prelude in D-flat major, No. 15 by Frédéric Chopin, La cathédrale engloutie by Claude Debussy — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.