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Webster 1913 Edition


Serenate

{

Serˊe-na′ta

,

Ser′e-nate

, }
Noun.
[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.