Paganini: Caprice No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 1 — Analysis

Paganini playing the violin, an artistic interpretation for Caprice No. 13
In Caprice No. 13, precise articulation gives the chromatic thirds their playful character. An artistic interpretation informed by Paganini’s likeness in Ingres’s portrait.

In Caprice No. 13, Paganini makes violin virtuosity sound like a distinctive musical character. The opening presents two notes at once, moving down in closely spaced chromatic steps and producing the playful effect later associated with laughter. A vigorous passage in G minor intervenes before the theme returns. In just a few minutes, changes of texture and rhythmic activity give this unaccompanied piece a complete expressive shape.

The piece belongs to the 24 Caprices, Op. 1, dedicated “to the artists.” The title caprice accommodates freedom of invention, while the writing addresses demanding questions of violin technique. Here, accurate double stopping, rapid string crossings and the articulation of the bow help distinguish one musical character from another. These demands shape what we hear at every stage of the work.

The collection’s compositional history remains uncertain. The manuscript delivered to Ricordi bears an engraver’s annotation dated 24 November 1817; publication followed in 1820. The frequently cited span 1802–1817 is a broad dating of the collection, rather than an established chronology for No. 13. Likewise, the designation Op. 1 identifies its place in Paganini’s published output and does not make it his earliest composition.

The familiar nickname “The Devil’s Laughter”, and its Italian counterpart La risata, belong to the work’s later reception. They are not titles supplied by Paganini. The image captures an audible quality of the opening, but it should not be mistaken for a programme: the score begins with Allegro and dolce. Sweetness and lightness are as much a part of this music’s identity as the teasing quality listeners may find in its falling chromatic thirds.

Movements / Structure

This is a single continuous piece in 6/8, organised around an A–B–A return. The opening section establishes B-flat major, the longer Minore moves to its relative minor, G minor, and a written instruction restores the beginning. Paganini does not copy out the final A section: D.C. senza Replica directs the player back to the opening, omitting the internal repeats on this last traversal.

Bar numbers refer to the written score, without renumbering repeated passages; the initial upbeat is not counted as a complete bar. The design achieves a great deal with few resources. A new tonal centre and a denser flow of notes transform the middle section, while the literal return makes the closing stage immediately intelligible to the ear.

Musical Analysis

The opening: how the violin seems to laugh

Paganini opens with double-stopped thirds: pairs of notes a third apart, sounded together on neighbouring strings. The violin therefore carries two lines at once, giving the theme more body than a single melody would possess. After a brief upbeat and a rise into the upper register, the pairs descend chromatically, each successive pair falling a little lower, often by a semitone. This carefully shaped descent gives the opening its unmistakable profile.

The resemblance to laughter becomes more pronounced through detached articulation. Small gaps separate successive notes, even when several fall under one bow stroke. The brief, repeated sounds combine with the chromatic descent of the paired lines to create the characteristic effect. Laughter is a way listeners have described that effect, not a scene or narrative specified in the score.

The marking dolce is just as important. The notes need clear definition, but not a harsh attack: the bow separates them while allowing the phrase to remain light and supple. At the same time, Allegro calls for lively movement. An excessively slow opening or pronounced slides between pitches can alter the character of what Paganini wrote. In his performance commentary for the Henle edition, Renato de Barbieri emphasises precisely the genuine Allegro pulse and the light staccato.

Paganini, Caprice No. 13: opening upbeat and bars 1–2, showing the chromatic thirds
Example 1 — Allegro, opening upbeat and bars 1–2: the paired melodic line and chromatic descent associated with the image of laughter. First edition: Milan, Gio. Ricordi, [1820], plate 403, p. 26. University of Western Ontario copy, digitised by the Internet Archive. The copy contains handwritten performance annotations that are separate from the printed musical text.

The difficulty is heard above all as a question of evenness. Each pair of pitches must remain clear while the fingers accommodate the changing distances between notes. Meanwhile, the bow has to maintain balanced contact with two strings. If one note suddenly protrudes, or the articulation becomes heavy, the descent loses its ease. What appears on the page as an exercise in double stopping thus becomes a closely judged matter of character and timing.

A complete phrase behind the wit

The opening idea unfolds within a sixteen-bar section with clear phrases and cadences. The chromatic thirds alternate with more open figures, rests and lower notes, giving the dense two-note texture moments of greater transparency. Although only one violin is playing, the double stops and lower pitches provide enough harmonic support for listeners to follow the direction of the melody and its points of arrival.

B-flat major remains the principal point of reference despite the many accidentals. Chromatic motion does not mean that the music establishes a new key at every step. Here it is primarily a way of moving through a recognisable tonal setting. The cadences restore a sense of stability, giving the wit of the falling figure a well-defined boundary.

In the second part of section A, larger intervals and movement into the upper range briefly expand the scale of the writing. The familiar descent returns, and the music reaches the point marked Fine. On the first traversal, however, this is not yet the end of the piece: the Minore follows. The instruction acquires its final meaning only after the central section has been heard and the player has returned da capo.

The Minore: more notes within the same time

The change at the start of the Minore is immediate. The violin initially moves lower, the dynamic becomes forte, and a quick succession of single notes replaces the double-stopped thirds. The new key is G minor, the relative minor of B-flat major. Both use a two-flat key signature, but they have different tonal centres. F-sharp, functioning as the leading note to G, helps establish the new key.

The contrast requires neither a change of metre nor a new, faster tempo. The music remains in 6/8, and Paganini supplies no fresh speed indication. Instead, sixteenth notes double the activity within each eighth-note duration. The underlying pulse may stay steady even as the musical surface becomes much denser. Recognising this helps us hear the energy written into the passage, independently of any extra acceleration a performer might choose.

In bars 17–20, rapid figures alternate with low notes and accents. Large shifts across the violin's range require precise string crossings if each figure is to retain its outline. Slurs and detached notes differentiate the groups: some move in a continuous sweep, while others carry a more pronounced accent. The passage thus has an audible inner structure rather than an undifferentiated rush of notes.

Paganini, Caprice No. 13: bars 17–20 of the Minore in G minor
Example 2 — Minore, bars 17–20: denser sixteenth-note motion, string crossings and accents in the first complete phrase. The preceding Minore upbeat is outside this crop. First edition: Milan, Gio. Ricordi, [1820], plate 403, p. 26. University of Western Ontario / Internet Archive. The printed abbreviation repeating the figure within bar 17 is retained.

The Minore does not remain in the same colour throughout. After its opening low-lying phrase, the writing climbs into the upper register, and Paganini introduces another dolce marking while the sixteenth-note motion continues. The changing distance between high and low notes brings greater expressive variety. The middle section is therefore not simply aggressive or restless; it also contains more delicate, singing moments.

Later, accents, low notes and successive string crossings renew the drive. Chromatic inflections and phrases directed towards cadence carry the harmonic motion forward until G minor reaches a clear conclusion. A written instruction then returns the performer to the beginning. There is no extended connecting passage gradually leading the music back to B-flat major.

The return: familiarity in a new setting

At the da capo, the opening chromatic thirds return unchanged. What has changed is the listener's point of reference: after the dense sixteenth notes of the Minore, the opening eighth-note motion seems more spacious and clearly defined. This contrast makes the return significant without the need for any new musical material.

The instruction senza Replica tells the performer to omit the internal repeats on this final traversal. The piece ends at Fine, back in B-flat major. There is no independent coda: Paganini closes with the same theme that made the caprice recognisable from its first bars.

The complete performance below, with Sergej Krylov, follows this journey from the opening Allegro through the Minore and back to the beginning.

Caprice and étude: technique becomes character

In No. 13, the demands of violin playing are inseparable from musical expression. At the opening, two pitches must move together with clarity and flexible articulation. In the Minore, rapid sequences, wider shifts and accurate string crossings become central. The ternary design allows these technical differences to be heard as two contrasting musical characters.

This helps explain the caprice’s relationship to the concert étude. A technical problem can organise a whole musical idea when it shapes the phrase, rhythm and quality of sound. Accurate thirds determine how the opening theme speaks; fluent string crossings determine the continuity and direction of the Minore. Listeners can hear the consequences without needing to know the fingerings or the practical mechanics of execution.

The freedom implied by the word Capriccio coexists with an unusually clear design. Cadences shape the phrases, the Minore provides a substantial contrast, and the return brings the whole piece to a close. Virtuosity becomes a musical form the listener can follow, while the performer must sustain its continuity through changing technical demands.

🪶 A Chapter in the Life of the Work

From manuscript to printed page

A small annotation on the manuscript of Paganini’s 24 Caprices takes us from the composition of the music to the work of getting it into print. It records the name L. Tomaso, the date 24 November 1817 and the number 403. Tomaso was an engraver, one of the people who transferred musical notation onto the plates used by Giovanni Ricordi’s publishing house in Milan. The date belongs to that publishing process. It does not establish when Paganini composed Caprice No. 13.

The manuscript had already reached the publisher in an organised form. Paganini had gathered the twenty-four pieces into three manuscript booklets: six caprices in the first, six in the second and twelve in the third. No. 13 stood at the beginning of that last group. The handwritten pages now had to become a printed collection with a fixed sequence and a recognisable publishing identity. The number 403 entered by the engraver would identify the plates of the first edition.

More than two years separated the 1817 annotation from the collection’s appearance in print. On 1 December 1819, the Gazzetta di Genova announced works by Paganini that Ricordi was preparing to publish. On 23 June 1820, the same newspaper reported that the publisher had begun issuing five works by the celebrated violinist, expressly including the 24 Caprices. These notices trace the passage from preparing the plates to publishing the collection, although they do not establish the precise day on which every copy was printed.

In the 1820 edition, Caprice No. 13 filled the whole of page 26. The descending double-stopped thirds, the Minore and the da capo instruction appeared together on a single page. The nickname “The Devil’s Laughter”, by which the piece would later become familiar, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the violinist encountered the number, the markings Allegro and dolce, and the written details from which the phrase had to be shaped.

The printed collection was now available to violinists, while the manuscript remained in the Ricordi archive. In 1974, the publisher issued a facsimile, introduced by the distinguished violinist Yehudi Menuhin with a preface by the musicologist Federico Mompellio. The reproduction gave more performers and scholars access to Paganini’s handwriting, making it easier to compare his notation with details that had become familiar through later printed scores.

For No. 13, those comparisons matter because the character of its famous “laughter” depends on fine decisions in performance. How short should the notes be, and how freely should the phrase move? Later performance commentary published with the Henle edition draws attention to the original Allegro and dolce markings and to light articulation. From an engraver’s note in 1817 to close reading of the score today, the publication history remains connected to the way the music is heard.

🎧 Listening Guide

On a first hearing, take the descending thirds as your principal landmark. Notice that two notes sound together and that the phrase falls in closely spaced steps. Then listen for the rests and lower figures that let it breathe. The opening has punctuation and direction, as well as a distinctive sound.

When the Minore begins, first notice the move into the lower register and then the denser flow of notes. The metre is still 6/8: try feeling two main beats in each bar rather than counting every fast note. It becomes easier to hear that the increased intensity comes chiefly from the change from eighth notes to sixteenths.

Within the central section, identify the move into the upper range. The colour changes while the flow continues. On a second hearing, listen for low notes and accents recurring among the runs: these points of support help shape the phrase and prevent the activity from becoming an undifferentiated stream.

At the da capo, notice how readily the opening theme is recognised, and how different its eighth notes sound after the densely written middle section. The familiar cadence ends the piece without a new epilogue. When comparing performances, listen for the light separation of the opening thirds, the continuity of the pulse in the Minore, and which of the written repeats the violinist observes.

🎶 Further Listening

These selections all concern Caprice No. 13 itself, with different starting points for comparison.

  • Edson Scheid — 24 Caprices, Naxos 9.70264. Recorded on a period violin with gut strings and a classical bow. These choices provide a concrete comparison for the response of the sound, the separation of the opening thirds and the weight of low notes in the Minore.
  • James Ehnes — 24 Caprices, Onyx 4044, recorded in 2009. In his booklet essay, Ehnes explains his use of the manuscript as his principal guide, alongside selected readings from printed editions. His No. 13 offers a useful starting point for following the score, concentrating on articulation and the breathing spaces within the chromatic descent.
  • Sergej Krylov — the live performance included in this article. The video offers an opportunity to relate changes of texture to the movement of the bow. Focus on the transition from the opening double-stopped thirds to the rapid string crossings of the central section.

📚 Further Reading

A fuller understanding of the piece benefits from bringing together its musical text, publication history and the wider discussion of Paganini as a composer.

  • Renato de Barbieri, Alberto Cantù and Ernst Herttrich — 24 Capricci op. 1, Henle, HN 450 / HN 9450. The preface and performance commentary explain the relationship between the manuscript and printed editions. The discussion of No. 13 is particularly useful for questions of tempo and articulation.
  • Maria Rosa Moretti and Anna Sorrento — Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini, Genoa, Comune di Genova, 1982. Entry M.S. 25, pp. 83–90, distinguishes composition, preparation of the plates and publication. It includes a description of the manuscript and archival references to early announcements.
  • Jeffrey Perry — “Paganini’s Quest: The Twenty-four Capricci per violino solo, Op. 1,” 19th-Century Music 27/3, 2004, pp. 208–229. A route into the relationship between technique and expression across the collection. Its close readings concern other caprices, rather than No. 13; the published abstract clearly sets out the broader research question.

🔗 Related Works

The following works illuminate different aspects of the relationship between technical invention and musical expression.

  • Niccolò Paganini — Caprice No. 5 in A minor, Op. 1: rapid motion and bowing technique create a contrasting musical personality within the same collection.
  • Pietro Locatelli — L’arte del violino, Op. 3: the twenty-four solo caprices incorporated into these concertos provide an earlier context for the encounter between freedom of invention and virtuoso writing.
  • Frédéric Chopin — Étude in G-sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 6: sustained writing in thirds invites comparison with another instrument, where the same kind of interval produces a different texture and expressive movement.
  • Robert Schumann — Study No. 4 in B-flat major, from Studies after Caprices by Paganini, Op. 3: this direct piano adaptation of Caprice No. 13 allows the same musical idea to be compared across two instruments, revealing what changes when double stopping becomes keyboard writing.

🎼 Closing Reflection

Laughter changes when we hear it for a second time. The returning voice may keep its inflection, yet we have already heard what came between. In the violin’s final descent, that small distance remains: the familiarity of a sound we recognise, and the freedom to feel it differently.