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

A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father has a parental social and legal relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations, although this varies between jurisdictions. An adoptive father is a male who has become the child's parent through the legal process of adoption. A biological father is the male genetic contributor to the creation of the baby, through sexual intercourse or sperm donation. A biological father may have legal obligations to a child not raised by him, such as an obligation of monetary support. A putative father is a man whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been established. A stepfather is a male who is the husband of a child's mother and they may form a family unit, but who generally does not have the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child.

The adjective "paternal" refers to a father and comparatively to "maternal" for a mother. The verb "to father" means to procreate or to sire a child from which also derives the noun "fathering". Biological fathers determine the sex of their child through a sperm cell which either contains an X chromosome (female), or Y chromosome (male). Related terms of endearment are dad (dada, daddy), papa/pappa, papasita, (pa, pap) and pop. A male role-model that children can look up to is sometimes referred to as a father-figure.

Death Note is a 37-episode anime series based on the manga series of the same title written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Death Note aired in Japan on the Nippon Television (NTV) network every Tuesday, from October 3, 2006, to June 26, 2007. The plot of the series primarily revolves around high school student Light Yagami, who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook titled Death Note. This book causes the death of anyone whose name is written in it and is passed on to Light by the God of Death (or Shinigami) Ryuk after he becomes bored within the Shinigami world.

A three-hour "Director's Cut" compilation TV special, titled "Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God", aired on NTV a few months after the anime concluded. Although advertised to be the "complete conclusion", the popularity of the series inspired the release of a second TV special, titled "Death Note: Relight 2: L's Successors" nearly a year later. These specials recap the first and second arcs of the anime respectively, with new scenes added to fill in any plot holes resulted from omitted footage.

The Fullmetal Alchemist manga and anime series feature an extensive cast of fictional characters created by Hiromu Arakawa. The story is set in a fictional universe within the 20th Century in which alchemy is one of the most advanced scientific techniques. Although they basically start the same, the first anime, midway through its run, begins to differ greatly from the original manga; characters that are killed early on in the manga survive to the end of the first anime and vice versa. The second anime's (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) events, however, faithfully follow those from the manga.

The story follows the adventures of two alchemist brothers named Edward and Alphonse Elric. While trying to revive their mother, the brothers lost parts of their bodies, with Alphonse's soul being contained in a suit of armor, and Edward replacing his right arm and left leg with two sets of automail, a type of advanced prosthetic limb. Advised by Roy Mustang, an alchemist from the State Military, Edward becomes a State Alchemist, and starts traveling with Alphonse through the country of Amestris in order to find a way to recover their bodies. In their search, they hear of the Philosopher's Stone, a powerful alchemy artifact that the brothers can use to recover their bodies. However, after becoming a State Alchemist, Edward discovers that several members of the military are also attempting to get the stone, most notably humanoid creatures known as homunculi, who start chasing the Elric brothers.