CANTO, one of the divisions of a long poem, a term dating from the time when poetry was more usually sung by the minstrel to his own accompaniment than read (from Lat. cantus, a song). In music, canto, as a common Italian word, has many meanings, including music itself, song, singing (as in bet canto, beautiful singing), etc. More specifically it signifies the melody in a com position of many parts, usually given to the soprano nowadays, but in old music more frequently to the tenor. Canto fermo (or cantus firmus) is a melody of this kind which retains its shape unaltered throughout a contrapuntal work; such also in church music is the simple straightforward melody of the old chants as opposed to that of a more florid kind known as canto figurato.