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The '''Serenade''' as a musical form began life as the Italian ''serenata'', a vocal work, usually a love song, to be sung outdoors. (The lady at her window or on the balcony was not obbligato.) As such, serenades appeared in [[Mozart]]’s [[opera]]s ''Abduction from the Seraglio'' and ''[[Don Giovanni]]''; but at the same time, increasingly, the form was being taken over by the instrumental serenade – a sort of ''divertimento'' – music to be played outdoors in the evening purely as entertainment – a diversion. Mozart himself wrote many of them - some extremely well known – for a variety of combinations of instruments.

The '''Serenade''' as a musical form began life as the Italian ''serenata'', a vocal work, usually a love song, to be sung outdoors. (The lady at her window or on the balcony was not obbligato.) As such, serenades appeared in [[Mozart]]’s [[opera]]s ''Abduction from the Seraglio'' and ''[[Don Giovanni]]''; but at the same time, increasingly, the form was being taken over by the instrumental serenade – a sort of ''divertimento'' – music to be played outdoors in the evening purely as entertainment – a diversion. Mozart himself wrote many of them - some extremely well known – for a variety of combinations of instruments.

Meanwhile the song has gone on, with the serenade in its most ancient form having spent the centuries pouring from the lips of ardent lovers from the early ''[[chanson]]s'' and ''[[madrigal]]s'' to opera, operetta and stage musicals, continuing to refuse to show its age. A Hollywood film musical even has a serenade, ostensibly to a donkey.

Meanwhile the song has gone on, with the serenade in its most ancient form having spent the centuries pouring from the lips of ardent lovers from the early ''[[chanson]]s'' and ''[[madrigal]]s'' to opera, operetta and stage musicals, continuing to refuse to show its age. A Hollywood film musical even has a serenade, ostensibly to a donkey.

[[Category: Musical forms]]

[[Category: Musical forms]]