serenata

American  

[ser-uh-nah-tuh] / ˌsɛr əˈnɑ tə /

noun

Music.

plural

serenatas, serenate

1. a form of secular cantata, often of a dramatic or imaginative character.

2. an instrumental composition in several movements, intermediate between the suite and the symphony.

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serenata British  

/ ˌsɛrɪˈnɑːtə /

noun

1. an 18th-century cantata, often dramatic in form

2. another word for serenade

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Etymology

Origin of serenata

1715–25; < Italian serenata evening song, equivalent to seren ( o ) serene + -ata noun suffix, associated with sera evening; soiree

Example Sentences

My mother trailed behind me with serenata, a cold codfish salad, and a crock of steaming hot arroz con gandules.

From Washington Post • Nov. 18, 2021

Last January, Tines joined Costanzo and soprano Lauren Snouffer in a gender-fluid production of Handel’s rarely staged serenata, “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” directed by Christopher Alden.

From Washington Post • Aug. 30, 2021

Written for a wedding in 1708, this serenata — a form somewhere between a sonata and an opera — is about two servants who fall prey to their master, the malevolent Polifemo.

From New York Times • Jul. 10, 2017

A 300-year-old serenata, it languished forgotten until it was recently rediscovered by scholars.

From New York Times • May 5, 2016

And then I've promised to compose you a serenata, with seventy-five verses.

From Colomba by Loyd, Lady Mary Sophia (Hely-Hutchinson)