Terminology of the Low Countries The Old Dutch form is "flāmisk", which becomes "vlamesc", "vlaemsch" in Middle Dutch and "Vlaams" in Modern Dutch. Flemish is now exclusively used to describe the majority of Dutch dialects found in Flanders, and as a reference to that region. Calques of "Vlaams" in other languages: In many languages including English, (a calque of) "Holland" is a common name for the Netherlands as a whole. Even the Dutch use this sometimes. Strictly speaking, Holland is only the central-western region of the country comprising two of the twelve provinces, North Holland and South Holland, and thus linguistically a "pars pro toto"
Music of Belgium other African music with European influences. Music of Belgium The music of Belgium is a cultural crossroad where Flemish Dutch-speaking and Walloon French-speaking traditions mix with those of German minorities and of immigrant communities from Democratic Republic of the Congo and other distant countries. Many of the major 15th- and 16th-century composers of the Franco-Flemish School—a current of vocal polyphony that played a central role in European art music of the time—were born and bred in the portion of the Low Countries that is situated in present-day Belgium, often in Hainaut. The late medieval composer and music theorist Johannes Ciconia