“ Even its use, from the 17th century onwards, for a kind of operetta was clearly no more than a natural allusion to the notion of serenades as addressed at night by minstrels to ladies and by clients to patrons. ”

“ The divertimento is a similar composition, more often for chamber music, and frequently on a scale altogether too small for the sonata style to show itself, though some examples by Mozart (e.g. those for strings and two horns) are very large. The cassation is a smaller composition, beginning (like Beethoven’s serenade op. 8) with a march. The classics of the serenade forms are among the works of Mozart and Haydn. Mozart’s larger and later serenades, from the “Haffner” serenade onwards, are among his most delightful and voluminous lighter instrumental works. ”