The Italian Language

Learn about the Italian language, grammar, vocabulary and culture

The Italian language has given us a large portion of our musical vocabulary. Italian composers dominated the European scene from the XVI to the XVIII centuries, the period when modern music was evolving, while Italian opera held virtual monopoly of the musical theatre up to the early XIX century, with composers as diverse as Mozart and Haydn writing many of their operas in Italian. Some of these expressions have acquired solely musical senses, being no longer used in everyday speech, while others remain part of the everyday speech.