A Serenade in its oldest usage, which survives in informal form to the present day, is a musical greeting performed for a lover, friend, person of rank or other person to be honoured. The classic usage would be from a lover to his lady love through a window. It was considered an evening piece, one to be performed on a quiet and pleasant evening, as opposed to an aubade, which would be performed in the morning. The custom of serenading in this manner began in the Medieval era, and the word “serenade” as commonly used is related to this custom. Music performed followed no one particular form, except that it was typically sung by one person accompanying himself on a portable instrument, most likely a guitar, lute or other plucked instrument.
In the Baroque era, a serenata — as the form was called since it occurred most frequently in Italy and Vienna — was a typically celebratory or eulogistic dramatic cantata for two or more singers and orchestra, performed outdoors in the evening by artificial light. Some composers of this type of serenade include Stradella, Scarlatti, Mattheson, and Caldara. Often these were large-scale works performed with minimal staging, intermediate between a cantata and an opera. The main difference between a cantata and a serenata, around 1700, was that the serenata was performed outdoors and therefore could use instruments which would be too loud in a small room (for example, trumpets, horns and drums).
The most important and prevalent type of serenade in music history is a work for large instrumental ensemble in multiple movements, related to the divertimento, and mainly being composed in the Classical and Romantic periods, though a few examples exist from the 20th century. Usually the character of the work is lighter than other multiple-movement works for large ensemble (for example the symphony), with tunefulness being more important than thematic development or dramatic intensity. Most of these works are from Italy, Germany and Austria.
Among the most famous examples of the serenade from the 18th century are those by Mozart, whose serenades typically comprise between four and ten movements. His serenades were often purely instrumental pieces, written for special occasions such as those commissioned for wedding ceremonies. Famous serenades by Mozart include the Haffner Serenade, Serenade No. 10 for Winds commonly known as Gran Partita, the Serenata notturna, and one of his most famous works, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. The last two of these, had they been written earlier in the century, would have been atypical for using only string instruments.
By the 19th century, the serenade had transformed into a concert work, and was less associated with outdoor performance for honorary occasions. Composers began to write serenades for other ensembles. The two serenades by Brahms are rather like light symphonies, perhaps more closely related to suites, except that they use an ensemble such as Mozart would have recognized: a small orchestra (in the case of the Serenade No. 2, an orchestra entirely without violins). Other composers to write serenades in a Romantic style include Beethoven, Berlioz, Schubert and Jean Sibelius.
