[ser-uh-neyd] 
noun, verb, -nad⋅ed, -nad⋅ing.| 1. | a complimentary performance of vocal or instrumental music in the open air at night, as by a lover under the window of his lady. |
| 2. | a piece of music suitable for such performance. |
| 3. | serenata (def. 2). |
| 4. | to entertain with or perform a serenade. |
| ser·e·nade (sěr'ə-nād', sěr'ə-nād') n.
v. tr. To perform a serenade for. v. intr. To perform a serenade. [French sérénade, from Italian serenata, from sereno, calm, clear, the open air, from Latin serēnus; see serene.] ser'e·nad'er n. |
| shiv·a·ree (shĭv'ə-rē', shĭv'ə-rē') n. Midwestern & Western U.S. A noisy mock serenade for newlyweds. Also called regionally charivari, belling, horning, serenade. [Alteration of charivari.] Shivaree is the most common American regional form of charivari, a French word meaning "a noisy mock serenade for newlyweds" and probably deriving in turn from a Late Latin word meaning "headache." The term, most likely borrowed from French traders and settlers along the Mississippi River, was well established in the United States by 1805; an account dating from that year describes a shivaree in New Orleans: "The house is mobbed by thousands of the people of the town, vociferating and shouting with loud acclaim.... [M]any [are] in disguises and masks; and all have some kind of discordant and noisy music, such as old kettles, and shovels, and tongs.... All civil authority and rule seems laid aside" (John F. Watson). The word shivaree is especially common along and west of the Mississippi River. Its use thus forms a dialect boundary running north-south, dividing western usage from eastern. This is unusual in that most dialect boundaries run east-west, dividing the country into northern and southern dialect regions. Some regional equivalents are belling, used in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan; horning, from upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania, and western New England; and serenade, a term used chiefly in the South Atlantic states. |
serenade
originally, a nocturnal song of courtship, and later, beginning in the late 18th century, a short suite of instrumental pieces, similar to the divertimento, cassation, and notturno. An example of the first type in art music is the serenade "Deh! vieni alla finestra" ("Oh, Come to the Window"), from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni. The instrumental serenade gradually lost its association with courtship and became (about 1770) primarily a collection of light pieces such as dances and marches suitable for open-air, evening performance
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əˈneɪd