capriccio

noun

1. A sudden and unexpected or fantastic motion; a caper; a gambol; a prank, a trick.

   “She used to smile at my capriccios; and once she kissed me—actually.”

2. A fantastical thing or work.

   “Will this Capricio hold in thee, art ſure?”

   ““Poor fellow!” thought Vivian, “I fear, with all thy wit and pleasantry, thou art, after all, but one of those capriccios which Nature sometimes indulges in, merely to show how superior is her accustomed order to eccentricities, even accompanied with rare powers.””

3. A type of Renaissance landscape painting that places particular works of architecture in an unusual and often fictional setting.

   “Above the drawing-room fireplace there was a painting by Guardi, a capriccio of Venice in a gilt rococo frame […]”

   “Capricci, far from being decorative images without meaning, probably express the sensation that the world, even though built by man with pretensions of eternity, is instead subjugated to the dominance of time […]”

4. A piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character.

   “The friar and Matilda had often sung duets together, and had been accustomed to the baron’s chiming in with a stormy capriccio, which was usually charmed into silence by some sudden turn in the witching melodies of Matilda.”

   “The stillness returned, save for the little voices of the night—the owl's recitative, the capriccio of the crickets, the concerto of the frogs in the grass.”