Herbert Howells wrote this Serenade in 1917 as the third and final movement of his Suite for Strings Op. 16 (Op 27 on the manuscript) the first two movements of which were re-used by the composer for his Concerto for String Orchestra (213) and Elegy (63) respectively. The Serenade remained unpublished until the present edition of 2011. It was first performed on 13th July 1917 at the Royal College of Music London by the RCM Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Stanford