  In this review article we present the calculation of the splitting rate in
flat space of a macroscopic fundamental string either intersecting at a generic
angle a Dp-brane or lying on it. The result is then applied, in the context of
the string/gauge theory correspondence, to the study of exclusive decay rates
of large spin mesons into mesons. As examples, we discuss the cases of N=4 SYM
with a small number of flavors, and of QCD-like theories in the quenched
approximation. In the latter context, explicit analytic formulas are given for
decay rates of mesons formed either by heavy quarks or by massless quarks.
