capriccio
Americannoun
-
Music. a composition in a free, irregular style.
-
a caper; prank.
-
a whim; caprice.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of capriccio
First recorded in 1595–1605; Italian “sudden startle,” possibly from capra “nanny goat” or capro “billy goat” (as of the skipping of a kid or goat), from Vulgar Latin capriceus “goat” (unattested); possibly from capo capo 2 ( def. ) and riccio (adjective) “curly,” (noun) “hedgehog” ( see arriccio ( def. ))
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Finally, Conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos appeared and gave the downbeat, and the perplexed audience settled down to the first U.S. performance of Ferruccio Busoni's "theatrical capriccio," Harlequin.
From Time Magazine Archive
Glazunof's Third Symphony; Rachmaninof's capriccio "Tzigane"; and Scriabin's Pianoforte Concerto with the composer as soloist, given by the Russian Symphony Orchestra, in New York City. 1906-7.
From Annals of Music in America A Chronological Record of Significant Musical Events by Lahee, Henry Charles
This is not the kind of prelude to pass from one key to another, but merely a capriccio to try over a piano.
From The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 by Nohl, Ludwig
But presently I did begin a capriccio, which I like very much, and it did go ever louder and louder; and I forgot that it was midnight and that everybody was asleep.
From Eclectic School Readings: Stories from Life by Marden, Orison Swett
This is not too fast for the capriccio, with its pretty and ingenious rhythmical transformations.
From Chopin : the Man and His Music by Huneker, James
Artists like Pannini and Piranesi specialized in composite views of ancient buildings, and these architectural fantasies, or capricci, enjoyed an immense vogue.
From Time Magazine Archive
Only the crudest works of plastic art, capricci and arabesques, have no intellectual content; and even these are good in so far as they convey the playfulness of fancy.
From Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, First Series by Brown, Horatio Robert Forbes
Both these artists were much celebrated for those capricci, or fancy pieces, which afterwards fell into disuse.
From The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. IV (of 6) from the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century by Lanzi, Luigi Antonio
The celebrated twenty-four violin capricci, written early in Paganini's career, have been rendered familiar by their transcriptions to the pianoforte by Schumann and Liszt.
From A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Volume Two (of Three) by Emerson, Edwin
Others he retrofitted into capriccios of the multifaith city, whose inhabitants worshiped a collection of Babylonian, Phoenician and Greek gods.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2017
Between are alternately dreamy and lively capriccios by both; all is played with style, flair and velvety touch by Mr. Wosner, given spirited support by Mr. Collon and the Danes.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2016
Mr. Rose was at his most varied and flexible in the Fantasy Pieces, in which his assertive renderings of the outgoing capriccios were offset by graceful, richly detailed playing in the more subtle intermezzos.
From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2011
Style in Curtis is closer to old-fashioned capriccios than to surrealism.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hoby had evidently alarmed, by some sprinklings of Italianisms—some capriccios of “new-fangled” words—the chaste ear of our Anglican purist.
From Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature by Disraeli, Isaac
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
