Capriccioso

As Printed on a Score

Printed as a character word beside a tempo or in a part, and often in titles (Rondo capriccioso). It holds until another tempo or character direction. Do not confuse it with a capriccio, which asks the performer to take the timing freely.

How Composers Use It

Capriccioso asks for whimsy: sudden changes of mood and colour, playful accents, a sense that the music could swerve at any moment. Unlike a capriccio it does not suspend the pulse; the caprice lives in articulation and dynamics. Mendelssohn’s Rondo capriccioso and Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso use it to promise a quicksilver, virtuoso character. Make the swerves happen in the notes; the word only confirms them.

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