Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Music An instrumental work with an improvisatory style and a free form.
- noun A prank; a caper.
- noun A whim.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A caprice; a whim. Also
caprichio . - noun A musical composition in a free, irregular, and often whimsical style: first applied to deviations from strict forms, like the fugue, especially when in quick tempo, but now extended to any fancifully irregular piece. Also
caprice .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mus.) A piece in a free form, with frequent digressions from the theme; a fantasia; -- often called
caprice . - noun A caprice; a freak; a fancy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A sudden and unexpected or fantastic motion; a
caper ; agambol ; aprank , a trick. - noun A fantastical thing or work; a
caprice . - noun A type of
landscape painting that places particularworks ofarchitecture in anunusual setting. - noun A piece of
music , usually fairlyfree in form and of alively character.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an instrumental composition that doesn't adhere to rules for any specific musical form and is played with improvisation
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Were it not that we attach, especially since Mendelssohn's time, the idea of lightness and light-heartedness to the word capriccio, this would certainly be the more descriptive name for the things Chopin entitled SCHERZO.
Frederic Chopin as a Man and Musician Niecks, Frederick 1888
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More than to any one of the master's scherzos, the name capriccio would be suitable to his third "Scherzo," Op. 39, with its capricious starts and changes, its rudderless drifting.
Frederic Chopin as a Man and Musician Niecks, Frederick 1888
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This was also the heyday of the "capriccio," or architectural and landscape fantasy, established by Marco Ricci and developed by Canaletto and Tiepolo.
NYT > Home Page By RODERICK CONWAY MORRIS 2010
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Jacquet also appears to have been the first to use ‘capriccio’ as a musical title.
Archive 2009-06-01 Lu 2009
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Cole painted this capriccio on commision for an architect famous for his Greek and Gothic Revival buildings, Ithiel Town.
Capriccio in Art James Gurney 2009
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In painting, a capriccio is an architectural fantasy that combines various buildings, ruins, or landscape elements into an extravagant juxtaposition.
Capriccio in Art James Gurney 2009
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Not a strict depiction of an actual locale, it is more in the Italian tradition of the capriccio, or imaginary scene.
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He trembled lest he should have been the plaything of a whim, for he had heard what a capriccio might mean in an
Albert Savarus 2007
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He trembled lest he should have been the plaything of a whim, for he had heard what a capriccio might mean in an
Albert Savarus 2007
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This is not a 100% historically accurate rendering, by the way, just a little capriccio.
Veniceblog: 2004
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