Ser`e*na"ta (?), Ser"e*nate (?), n. [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.
Milton.
⇒ 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.
© Webster 1913.