capriccio (music)

A short musical composition, usually of a light or fanciful kind and often (though not necessarily) for piano. There are several famous examples in the work of Brahms.

The term has been applied to a variety of works: in the Baroque era it was often used for short keyboard pieces (for example, by Girolamo Frescobaldi). Niccolò Paganini used it for a set of twenty-four virtuoso solo violin works, Luigi Legnani used it for a set of thirty-six virtuoso solo guitar works, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov used it for orchestral works (the Capriccio Italien and Capriccio espagnol respectively). Johannes Brahms wrote many capriccios for piano during the later years of his life, all of which are considered to be amongst the most unique and thoughtful pieces of the late Romantic music era.