In music, a serenade (or sometimes serenata, from the Italian word) is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.

The word serenade is the translation of the Italian word serenata, derived from the Latin word serenus.

Early serenade music

In the oldest usage, which survives in informal form to the present day, a serenade is a musical greeting performed for a lover, friend, person of rank or other person to be honored. The classic serenade 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 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, most likely a guitar, lute or other plucked instrument. Works of this type also appeared in later eras, but usually in a context that referred specifically to a past time, such as arias in an opera (there is a famous example in Mozart's Don Giovanni). Carl Maria von Weber composed his serenade for voice and guitar, "Horch'! Leise horch', Geliebte!" (1809).

The two Serenades, Op. 11 and 16, represented two of the earliest efforts by Johannes Brahms to write orchestral music. They both date from the 1850s when Brahms was residing in Detmold.

Brahms had a goal of reaching Beethoven's level in writing symphonies, and worked long and hard on his First Symphony, completing it only in 1876. As preliminary steps in composing for orchestra, he chose early on to write some lighter orchestral pieces, these Serenades.

Serenade No. 1 in D, Op. 11

The first serenade was completed in 1858. At that time, Brahms was also working on his First Piano Concerto. Originally scored for wind and string octet and then expanded into a longer work for chamber nonet, the serenade was later adapted for orchestra; Brahms completed the final version for large orchestra in December 1859. In the orchestration of the Concerto Brahms had solicited and got a great deal of advice from his good friend Joseph Joachim. For this Serenade Joachim also gave advice, although to a lesser extent. The first performance of the Serenade, in Hamburg on 3 March 1860, "did not go very well" in Brahms's opinion, but evidently the unusually large audience of 1,200 did not notice any mistake during the performance. At the end, applause "persisted until I came out and down in front." After every piece in the concert "the audience was shouting." This was a vastly better reception than the Piano Concerto had in either of its first two performances. But at its third performance, 24 March, also in Hamburg, it had been a success, perhaps not to the same degree as the Serenade.

Serenades is the debut album by the British rock band Anathema. It was released in February 1993 through Peaceville Records.

It is the only album to feature singer Darren White. The band's guitarist Vincent Cavanagh replaced him as a lead singer on the following albums.

Track listing

All lyrics written by White, all music written by Anathema.

Personnel

Guest musicians

Production

Notes