In the original sense, a serenade is a musical composition or performance given in honor of someone or something, such as by a man courting a woman. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. In the Baroque era, a serenata – which the form was called since it occurred most frequently in Italy and Vienna – was a typically celebratory or eulogistic dramatic cantata for two or more singers and orchestra, performed outdoors in the evening by artificial light. The most important and prevalent type of serenade in music history is a work for large instrumental ensemble in multiple movements, related to the divertimento, and mainly being composed in the Classical and Romantic periods,