24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini)
Encyclopedia
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
1 was written by Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
between 1802 and 1817 and published in 1819. They are also designated as M.S. 25 in Maria Rosa Moretti and Anna Sorrento's Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini, which was published in 1982. The caprices have an étude
Étude
An étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
-esque structure, with each caprice
Capriccio (music)
A capriccio or caprice , is a piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character...
studying individual skills (double stopped trills
Trill (music)
The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....
, extremely fast switching of positions and strings, etc.)
History
Paganini began composing the caprices after completing his study in Parma with Pietro LocatelliPietro Locatelli
Pietro Antonio Locatelli was an Italian composer and violinist.-Biography:Locatelli was born in Bergamo, Italy. A child prodigy on the violin, he was sent to study in Rome under the direction of Arcangelo Corelli...
.
Edition Peters
Edition Peters
Edition Peters, also known as C.F.Peters Musikverlag, is a German music publishing house, founded in Leipzig in 1800.From the 1860s it was largely run by members the Hinrichsen family, who were Jewish. The company was confiscated by the Nazis and administered by the "Trustee of Jewish Property"....
first published them in 1819; Ricordi
Casa Ricordi
Casa Ricordi is a classical music publishing company founded in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi in Milan, Italy...
later published another edition in 1821. When Paganini released his caprices, he dedicated them "to the Artists" rather than to a specific person.
The twenty-four caprices
- Caprice No. 1 " The Arpeggio" in E majorE majorE major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
: Andante - Caprice No. 2 in B minorB minorB minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. The harmonic minor raises the A to A. Its key signature has two sharps .Its relative major is D major, and its parallel major is B major....
: Moderato - Caprice No. 3 in E minorE minorE minor is a minor scale based on the note E. The E natural minor scale consists of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. The E harmonic minor scale contains the natural 7, D, rather than the flatted 7, D – to align with the major dominant chord, B7 .Its key signature has one sharp, F .Its...
: Sostenuto - Presto - Sostenuto - Caprice No. 4 in C minorC minorC minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...
: Maestoso - Caprice No. 5 in A minorA minorA minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G...
: Agitato - Caprice No. 6 "The Trill" in G minorG minorG minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. For the harmonic minor scale, the F is raised to F. Its relative major is B-flat major, and its parallel major is G major....
: Lento - Caprice No. 7 in A minor: Posato
- Caprice No. 8 in E-flat major: Maestoso
- Caprice No. 9 "The Hunt" in E major: Allegretto
- Caprice No. 10 in G minor: Vivace
- Caprice No. 11 in C majorC majorC major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
: Andante - Presto - Andante - Caprice No. 12 in A-flat major: Allegro
- Caprice No. 13 " Devil's Laugher" in B-flat major: Allegro
- Caprice No. 14 in E-flat major: Moderato
- Caprice No. 15 in E minor: Posato
- Caprice No. 16 in G minor: Presto
- Caprice No. 17 in E-flat major: Sostenuto - Andante
- Caprice No. 18 in C major: Corrente - Allegro
- Caprice No. 19 in E-flat major: Lento - Allegro Assai
- Caprice No. 20 in D majorD majorD major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
: Allegretto - Caprice No. 21 in A major: Amoroso - Presto
- Caprice No. 22 in F majorF majorF major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...
: Marcato - Caprice No. 23 in E-flat major: Posato
- Caprice No. 24 in A minor: Tema con Variazioni (Quasi Presto)
Caprice No. 1
Nicknamed "L'Arpeggio", this composition matches chordal playing with ricochet across all 4 strings. The piece opens in E Major and then quickly transitions into an E minor development section, where descending scales in thirds are introduced.Caprice No. 2
The second caprice in B minor focuses on detache with many string crossings across non-adjacent strings.Caprice No. 3
Caprice No. 3 is a slurred legato exercise with octave trills in the introduction and conclusion.Caprice No. 5
This caprice focuses on fast ricochet bowings. It begins and ends with a section of ascending arpeggios followed by descending scales.Caprice No. 6
Nicknamed "The Trill", the sixth caprice exploits the use of left-hand tremolo on the violin by quickly alternating between different notes in the chord in one of the voices. A melody is played in one line with a tremolo occurring on another.Caprice No. 7
This caprice focuses on slurred staccato passages, featuring many long slurred scales and arpeggios.Caprice No. 8
Caprice No. 8 focuses on sustaining a lower note while playing a higher melody at the same time, meanwhile incorporating many trills and double stops.Caprice No. 9
Nicknamed "La Chasse" or "The Hunt", the violin's A and E strings imitate the flutes ("Sulla tastiera imitando il Flauto"), while the G & D strings imitate the horns ("imitando il Corno sulla D e G corda"). Primarily a study in double stops, with ricochet occurring in the middle section.Caprice No. 10
This caprice is primarily a study in up-bow staccato, with staccato notes punctuated by chords, trills and distant string crossings.Caprice No. 11
The eleventh caprice starts and ends with sections that require multiple voices, containing a passage that consists of many dotted notes rapidly jumping up and down the scale.Caprice No. 12
This caprice consists of a slurred pattern of a melody on an upper string alternating with a drone note on a bottom string, forcing the violinist to stretch great distances while keeping a finger on the drone string.Caprice No. 13
Nicknamed "The Devil's Laughter", this solo violin piece starts out with scale like double-stopped passages at a moderate speed. The second part consists of high speed runs that exercise left hand flexibility and position shifting, and right hand high speed string changing and detache bowing. The piece then repeats back to the beginning and ends right before reaching the second part for the second time.Caprice No. 14
The 14th caprice displays the violin's ability to voice chords. It contains many triple and quadruple stops. Stylistically, the piece imitates brass fanfares.Caprice No. 15
Caprice 15 starts with a short passage of high parallel octaves, continuing on to ascending arpeggios, descending scales, and broken thirds.Caprice No. 17
The "A" section contains numerous thirty-second note runs on the A and E strings that converse back and forth with double stops on the lower two strings. The middle section is famous for the incredibly difficult octave passage.Caprice No. 18
The introduction to caprice 18 demonstrates playing on the G string in very high positions. This is followed by a rapid display of scales in thirds.Caprice No. 19
Here are a lot of octaves at the beginningThen there are string crossings between G and A strings
This is followed by quick changes of position on the G string.
Caprice No. 20
Caprice 20 is famous for the use of the D string as a drone, backdropping a lyrical melody on the A and E strings, imitating a bagpipe. This is followed by a rapid sixteenth note passage with trills and flying staccato.Caprice No. 21
Caprice 21 begins with a very expressive, ariaAria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
-like melody played in double-stopped sixths. This is followed by a section of rapid up-bow staccato.