latin music
Latin ( lingua Latīna , pronounced ) is an ancient Indo-European language that was spoken in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It was also the de facto international language of science and scholarship in mid and western Europe until the 17th century. Through Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. It later evolved into the languages spoken in France, Italy, Romania and the Iberian peninsula, and through them to Central and South America. It existed in two forms: Classical Latin, used in poetry and formal prose, and Vulgar Latin, a more common version spoken by the people. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Catholic Church Latin became the ecclesiastical language of the Catholic Church and the lingua franca of educated classes in the West.
After 2,300 years, Latin began a slow decline around the 1600s. Vulgar Latin however was preserved in several regional dialects, which by the 800s had become the ancestors of today's Romance languages. Latin lives on in the form of Ecclesiastical Latin spoken in the Catholic Church. Some Latin vocabulary is still used in science, academia, and law. Classical Latin, the literary language of the late Republic and early Empire, is still taught in many primary, grammar, and secondary schools, often combined with Greek in the study of Classics, though its role has diminished since the early 20th century. The Latin alphabet, together with its modern variants such as the English and French alphabets, is the most widely used alphabet in the world.
Music is an art form consisting of sound and silence. Elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, structure, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and sub-genres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music can be classified as a performing art, a fine art, or an auditory art form.
