serenata, form of 18th-century vocal music combining many features of cantata, oratorio, and opera. Use of the term extends back at least to the 16th century. In its most general sense, it referred to music written and performed in someone’s honour; at times the term was used for purely instrumental music as well. According to its most frequent usage, however, the serenata was semi-dramatic in nature; it was shorter and not as elaborately staged as opera, and it was usually performed by a small orchestra and several costumed singers. There was little scenery, and it was simple and unpretentious; the performance traditionally was presented as an evening entertainment in a palace reception room.
The pieces were customarily written to commemorate some special occasion, such as the birthday of a royal person, and were very much in vogue at the courts of Europe (particularly the emperor’s court at Vienna). Frequently, the texts were of an allegorical character, the subject being chosen from mythology or ancient history and treated in such a manner as to portray a very flattering and symbolic resemblance to the celebrant. Alessandro Stradella was one of the first composers of serenatas (Qual prodigio è ch’io miri, c. 1675); he was followed by Alessandro Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, and most other composers of the late 17th and 18th centuries. One of the most enduring and well-known examples of this genre is Handel’s pastoral serenata Acis and Galatea (c. 1718).