Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Serenata \Ser`e*na"ta\, Serenate \Ser"e*nate\, n. [It. serenata.
   See {Serenade}.] (Mus.)
   A piece of vocal music, especially one on an amoreus subject;
   a serenade.

         Or serenate, which the starved lover sings To his
         pround fair.                             --Milton.

   Note: The name serenata was given by Italian composers in the
         time of Handel, and by Handel himself, to a cantata of
         a pastoreal of dramatic character, to a secular ode,
         etc.; also by Mozart and others to an orchectral
         composition, in several movements, midway between the
         suite of an earlier period and the modern symphony.
         --Grove.