serenata

[It. serenata. See Serenade.]
(Mus.) A piece of vocal music, especially one on an amoreus subject; a serenade.

Or serenate, which the starved lover sings
To his pround fair.

Note: The name serenata was given by Italian composers in the time of Handel, and by Handel himself, to a cantata of a pastoreal of dramatic character, to a secular ode, etc.; also by Mozart and others to an orchectral composition, in several movements, midway between the suite of an earlier period and the modern symphony. Grove.

In its general sense, a musical performance in someone's honour. The term is used as the Italian equivalent of SERENADE for a song sung in the evening with instrumental accompaniment by a lover beneath the beloved's window. More specifically it is used for large-scale Baroque cantatas usually performed out of doors in the evenings to celebrate a particular occasion such as a royal anniversary. Serenatas were often given in elaborate scenic settings and with rich costumes, but (like the oratorio) without stage action or change of scene. There were at least two (usually more) solo singers, typically representing pastoral, allegorical or mythological figures; on particularly important occasions a chorus might be introduced. One feature was the progressive orchestration, frequently for larger forces than are found in contemporary operas. A. Scarlatti is prominent among composers who wrote serenatas for performance in Rome and Naples. The genre was particularly cultivated in Venice, and outside Italy in Vienna, Munich and Dresden and by aristocratic families in Spain and Portugal.