DIVERTIMENTO (Fr. Divertissement), in music, a class of work popular in the i8th century and in the nature of an orches tral suite, consisting of several movements, usually light and simple in character. Mozart wrote many. Serenade and cassation were other names for much the same kind of composition. The same term was also applied to chamber pieces of a similar kind and sometimes to works for one instrument only. In its French form (Divertissement) the term has a wider significance, includ ing pot-pourris, ballets of a light and loosely constructed character (as opposed to the more serious ballet d'action), music played between the acts of a play, and so on.