Leopold Mozart

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a German composer, violinist and theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook '' Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule'' (1756).

Life and career

Childhood and youth

He was born in Augsburg, son of Johann Georg Mozart (1679–1736), a bookbinder, and his second wife Anna Maria Sulzer (1696–1766). From an early age he sang as a choirboy. He attended a local Jesuit school, , where he studied logic, science, and theology, graduating ''magna cum laude'' in 1735. He studied then at the St. Salvator Lyzeum.

While a student in Augsburg, he appeared in student theater productions as an actor and singer, and became a skilled violinist and organist. He also developed an interest, which he retained, in microscopes and telescopes. Although his parents had planned a career for Leopold as a Catholic priest, this apparently was not Leopold's own wish. An old school friend told Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1777, "Ah he eopoldwas a great fellow. My father thought the world of him. And how he hoodwinked the clerics about becoming a priest!"

He withdrew from the St. Salvator Lyceum after less than a year. Following a year's delay, he moved to Salzburg to resume his education, enrolling in November 1737 at the Benedictine University (now University of Salzburg) to study philosophy and jurisprudence. At the time Salzburg was the capital of an independent state within the Holy Roman Empire (the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg), now part of Austria. Except for periods of travel, Leopold spent the rest of his life there.

Leopold received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1738. However, in September 1739 he was expelled from the university for poor attendance, having "hardly attended Natural Science more than once or twice".

Early music career

In 1740, Mozart began his career as a professional musician, becoming violinist and valet to one of the university's canons, Johann Baptist, Count of Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis. This was also the year of his first musical publication, the six Trio Sonatas, Opus 1. These were titled ''Sonate sei da chiesa e da camera''; Leopold did the work of copper engraving himself. He continued to compose, producing a series of German Passion cantatas.

In 1747 he married Anna Maria Pertl, who bore him seven children, although only two of them survived past infancy:
* Johann Leopold Joachim (August 18, 1748 – February 2, 1749)Mozart Day by Day: 1749
, Mozarteum
* Maria Anna Cordula (June 18, 1749 – June 24, 1749)
* Maria Anna Nepomucena Walpurgis (May 13, 1750 – July 29, 1750)
* Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia, Nannerl (July 30, 1751 – October 29, 1829)
* Johann Karl Amadeus (November 4, 1752 – February 2, 1753)
* Maria Crescentia Francisca de Paula (May 9, 1754 – June 27, 1754)
* Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791)

In 1743 Leopold Mozart was appointed to a position (fourth violinist) in the musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. His duties included composition and the teaching of violin (later, piano) to the choirboys of the Salzburg cathedral. He was promoted to second violinist in 1758 and in 1763 to deputy Kapellmeister. He rose no further; others were repeatedly promoted over him to the head position of Kapellmeister.

The question of whether Leopold was successful as a composer (either in terms of artistic success or fame) is debated. The ''Grove Dictionary'' says that as of 1756, "Mozart was already well-known. His works circulated widely in German-speaking Europe." However, biographer Maynard Solomon asserts that he "failed to make his mark as a composer", and Alfred Einstein "judged him to be an undistinguished composer".

Scholars agree, however, that Leopold was successful as a pedagogue. In 1755, he wrote his '' Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule'', a comprehensive treatise on violin playing. This work was published in 1756 (the year of Wolfgang's birth), and went through two further German editions (1769, 1787), as well as being translated into Dutch (1766) and French (1770). Today, the work is consulted by musicians interested in 18th century performance practice; see Historically informed performance. This work made a reputation in Europe for Leopold, and his name begins to appear around this time in music dictionaries and other works of musical pedagogy.

As teacher of Nannerl and Wolfgang

Mozart discovered that his two children were musically gifted in about 1759, when he began with keyboard lessons for the seven-year-old Nannerl. The toddler Wolfgang immediately began imitating his sister, at first picking out thirds on the keyboard and then making rapid progress under Leopold's instruction. By 1762, the children were ready to work as concert performers, and Leopold began taking the family on extensive concert tours, performing for both aristocracy and public, throughout central and western Europe. This tour included Munich, Vienna, Pressburg (Bratislava), Paris and the Hague together with a lengthy stay in London; see Mozart family Grand Tour.

The discovery of his children's talent is considered to have been a life-transforming event for Mozart. He once referred to his son as the "miracle which God let be born in Salzburg". Of Leopold's attitude, the ''Grove Dictionary'' says:

By "missionary", the ''Grove Dictionary'' refers to the family's concert tours.

Scholars differ on whether the tours made substantial profits. To be sure, often the children performed before large audiences and took in large sums, but the expenses of travel were also very high, and no money at all was made during the various times that Mozart and the children suffered serious illnesses. Mozart biographer Maynard takes the view that the tours were lucrative and produced long-term profits for Leopold; Ruth states to the contrary that their income generally only covered their travel and living expenses.

Since the instruction took much of his time, and the touring kept him away from Salzburg for long periods, Mozart cut down his activities in other areas. Nannerl later claimed that he "entirely gave up both violin instruction and composition in order to direct that time not claimed in service to the prince to the education of his two children". After 1762, his compositional efforts seem to have been limited to revising his earlier work, and by 1771 he had ceased composing altogether.

The touring continued into the early 1770s. The last three trips were to Italy, with only the father accompanying Wolfgang. Leopold Mozart's failure to advance above his Vice-Kapellmeister position at Salzburg is attributed by the ''Grove Dictionary'' to the great amount of time that the journeys kept him away from Salzburg (the longest journey was about three and a half years). After the final return from Italy in 1773, Leopold was repeatedly passed over for the Kapellmeister post.

Family life in Salzburg

Although Mozart is portrayed (notably by Halliwell 1998) as generally quite worried about money, the Mozart family by 1773 evidently felt prosperous enough to upgrade their living quarters. They left the home in the Getreidegasse where the children had been born and moved to rooms in the ''Tanzmeisterhaus'' ('Dancing-Master's House'), which had been the home of the recently deceased dancing master Franz Karl Gottlieb Speckner. As tenants of Speckner's cousin and heir Maria Anna Raab, the Mozarts had eight rooms, including the quite large room that Speckner had used for dancing lessons. This the Mozarts used for teaching, for domestic concerts, for storing keyboard instruments sold by Leopold, and for ''Bölzlschiessen'', a form of recreation in which family and their guests shot airguns at humorously designed paper targets.

Starting around this time, a major preoccupation was the lengthy and frustrating struggle to find a professional position for his son. His wife died in 1778 in Paris while accompanying Wolfgang on a job-hunting tour.

Relations with his children in their adulthood

Mozart is a controversial figure among his biographers, with the largest disagreements arising concerning his role as the parent of adult children. Mozart biographer Maynard Solomon has taken a particularly harsh view of Leopold, treating him as tyrannical, mendacious