Serenade
In music, a serenade (or sometimes serenata) is, in its most general sense, a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Even though the serenade honors an individual, serenades of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were more than likely written in a light mood and usually for an evening's entertainment, as opposed to an aubade (a morning song.) Serenades have been composed for ensembles of many differing configurations and are generally multi-movement works.
Categories of serenades
The following are the three general categories of serenade in music history:
1) In the oldest usage, which survives in informal form to the present day, a serenade is a composition performed for a lover, friend, or other person to be honored, typically in the evening and often below a window. The custom of serenading in this manner began in the Medieval era or Renaissance, and the word "serenade" as commonly used in current English 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, for example a flute or guitar. Works of this type also appeared in later eras, but usually in a context that referred specifically to a past time, such as an arias in an opera (there is a famous example in Mozart's Don Giovanni).
2) In the Baroque era, and generally called a Serenata (Italian "serenade"—since this form occurred most frequently in Italy), a serenade was a type of cantata performed outdoors, in the evening, with mixed vocal and instrumental forces. Some composers of this type of serenade include Alessandro Stradella, Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Joseph Fux, Johann Mattheson, and Antonio Caldara. Usually these were large-scale works performed with minimal staging, intermediate between a cantata and an opera. According to some commentators, 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.
3) 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, Austria and Bohemia.
Serenade examples
The most famous examples of the serenade from the eighteenth century are undoubtedly the ones by Mozart, which are works in more than four movements, and sometimes as many as ten. The most typical ensemble for a serenade was a wind ensemble augmented with basses and violas: instrumentalists who could stand, since the works were often performed outdoors. Frequently the serenades began and ended with movements of a marchlike character—since the instrumentalists often had to march to and from the place of performance. Famous serenades by Mozart include the Haffner Serenade (which he later reworked as the Haffner Symphony, no. 35), and one of his most famous works, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, which is atypical for only containing string instruments. Other important Mozart Serenades are the "Posthorn" Serenade (K. 320), which includes an extended bugle-type solo, the "Andretter" Serenade (K. 185), with its extended violin solos that were precursors to his five violin concerti, the Gran Partita for 13 Wind Insturments (K. 361) and the wind Serenades K. 375 and K. 388.
Serenade as a concert work
By the nineteenth century, the serenade had transformed into a concert work, less associated with outdoor performance for honorary occasions, and composers began to write serenades for other ensembles. The two serenades of Brahms are rather like light symphonies, except that they use an ensemble Mozart would have recognized: a small orchestra without violins. Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Josef Suk, Sir Edward Elgar and others wrote serenades for strings only, as did Hugo Wolf, who wrote one for string quartet (the Italian Serenade). Other composes to write serenades in a Romantic style include Richard Strauss, Max Reger and Jean Sibelius. Dvorak's Serenade, Opus 44 is scored for pairs of winds and horns, cello and contrabass.
Twentieth century serenade examples
Some examples of serenades in the 20th century include the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings by Benjamin Britten, the Serenade for piano by Stravinsky, Serenade for baritone and septet Op. 24 by Arnold Schoenberg, and the movement entitled "Serenade" in Shostakovich's last string quartet, No. 15 (1974). English composer, Ralph Vaughan-Williams' Serenade to Music is scored for sixteen solo singers and orchestra. Leonard Bernstien's Serenade is scored for solo violin and orchestra.
A twenty-first century example is Nigel Keay's Serenade for Strings composed in 2002.
Impact of the serenade
The serenade was a musical way to honor an individual and to create music for evening entertainment, especially in the Classical music era. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" is an example of a serenade form which is written for a stringed orchestra or string quartet with bass. The serenade was an example of smoothly flowing music which influenced many of the later Classical era composers, i.e. Ludwig van Beethoven's "String quartet in C minor", op. 18, #4, and Romantic era composers, i.e. Franz Schubert's "Die Forelle" (The Trout) quintet for piano and strings.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Daniels, David; Katz, Martin; Beethoven, Ludwig van; et al., Serenade, NY: Virgin Classics, 2000. OCLC 44479030
- Randel, Don, ed., The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-674-61525-5
- Sadie, Stanley, ed., "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart", "Serenade," "Serenata," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1-561-59174-2
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
