The canto is a principal form of division in a long poem, especially the epic. The word comes from Italian, meaning "song" or singing.

Famous poems that employ the canto division are Luís de Camões's Os Lusíadas (10 cantos), Lord Byron's Don Juan, Valmiki's Ramayana (500 cantos), Dante's The Divine Comedy (100 cantos), and Ezra Pound's The Cantos (120 cantos).

Lactose is a disaccharide sugar that is found most notably in milk and is formed from galactose and glucose. Lactose makes up around 2~8% of milk (by weight), although the amount varies among species and individuals. It is extracted from sweet or sour whey. The name comes from lac or lactis, the Latin word for milk, plus the -ose ending used to name sugars. It has a formula of C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁.

Lactose was discovered in milk in 1619 by Fabriccio Bartoletti, and identified as a sugar in 1780 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele.

Lactose is a disaccharide derived from the condensation of galactose and glucose, which form a β-1→4 glycosidic linkage. Its systematic name is β-D-galactopyranosyl-(1→4)-D-glucose. The glucose can be in either the α-pyranose form or the β-pyranose form, whereas the galactose can only have the β-pyranose form: hence α-lactose and β-lactose refer to anomeric form of the glucopyranose ring alone.

Lactose is hydrolysed to glucose and galactose, isomerised in alkaline solution to lactulose, and catalytically hydrogenated to the corresponding polyhydric alcohol, lactitol.

Simeon ten Holt (born in Bergen, North Holland, 24 January 1923) is a Dutch composer. Ten Holt studied with Jakob van Domselaer, eventually developing a highly personal style of minimal composition. Ten Holt generally uses consonant, tonal materials and his works are organized in numerous cells, made up of a few measures each, which are repeated ad libitum according to the player's preference.

Many of Ten Holt's works (as, for example, Canto Ostinato) employ harmonies quite similar to those used by European composers of the Romantic period. Thus, his style of minimal composition is truly European in its orientation and has been little influenced by North American minimal composers,^{[citation needed]} whose works draw more often on rock, jazz, and world music.

Van Domselaer's influence on ten Holt's musical philosophy has been considerable, with the younger composer picking up Van Domselaer's interests in the links between music and visual art, in music's relationship with mathematics, and in the use of the piano as a principal instrument in his compositions. Indeed, many of ten Holt's works are for piano or ensembles of multiple pianos.

Laura Alice Rossella Pausini, omri (Italian pronunciation: [pauˈziːni]; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian soul singer-songwriter. She debuted in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit, reaching the top spot on the Italian Singles Chart and the top 10 in France and the Netherlands.

Her eponymous debut album was released in Italy on 18 May 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide. Her second studio album, Laura, was released in 1994 and confirmed her success, selling 3,000,000 copies worldwide and spawning the hit singles "Strani amori" and "Gente". In November 1994 she released her first Spanish language album, titled Laura Pausini and composed of ten songs included in her previous works. The album was certified Diamond by the Association of Phonographic and Videographic of Spain, making her the first non-Spanish artist to sell more than 1,000,000 copies in Spain.

Cristian Castro (born Cristian Sáez Castro or Cristian Valdez on December 8, 1974 in Mexico City), , referred to as Christian Castro or Cristian is a Grammy Award-nominated Mexican pop singer.

Born in Mexico City, he is the son of renowned actress and singer Verónica Castro and comedian Manuel "El Loco" Valdes. Castro also has a younger brother named Michelle Sáez Castro, his uncle is José Alberto "el Guero" Castro and his aunt is Beatriz Castro, who both are producers. As a baby, he made his acting debut with her during the telenovela named El Derecho de Nacer. Soon after, he appeared on a television commercial with her, and on the Mexican version of the broadway show Mame alongside the prominent actress Silvia Pinal.

Castro is one of the best selling Latin artists and has worked with renowned Latin producers including Kike Santander, Rudy Pérez, and Richard Daniel Roman.

Castro began his singing career in 1992 with the release of Agua Nueva. After appearing in several telenovelas and recording some albums as a teenager, Castro began his "internationalization" in 1993, starting with concerts in Puerto Rico. Castro dedicated a song to that country in his second album, Un Segundo En El Tiempo, titled "Puerto Rico" as a way of thanking the Puerto Rican public for supporting his career. He also modified his singing voice from the deep voice he employed in Agua Nueva to a softer one that he currently uses. His song, Nunca Voy a Olvidarte (I Will Never Forget You), became his first number-one hit at the Hot Latin Tracks charts in 1993 helped launched his career. Castro became an international teen idol and sex symbol almost instantly after he began touring, and he began what has been a fructiferous international singing career.