Leopold Mozart
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Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.
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[edit] Life
[edit] Childhood and student years
He was born in Augsburg, Germany, son of Johann Georg Mozart (1679-1736), a bookbinder, and his second wife Anna Maria Sulzer (1696-1766).[1] From an early age he sang as a choirboy. He attended a local Jesuit school, the St. Salvator Gymnasium, where he studied logic, science, theology, graduating magna cum laude in 1735. He then moved on to a more advanced school, the St. Salvator Lyceum.[2]
While a student in Augsburg, he appeared in student theatrical productions as an actor and singer,[3] and became a skilled violinist and organist.[4] He also developed an interest, which he retained, in microscopes and telescopes.[5] 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 [Leopold] was a great fellow. My father thought the world of him. And how he hoodwinked the clerics about becoming a priest!"[6]
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 to study philosophy and jurisprudence.[7] At the time Salzburg was the capital of an independent state (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.[8] However, in September 1739 he was expelled from the university for poor attendance, having "hardly attended Natural Science more than once or twice"[9]
[edit] Early career as musician
In 1740, he 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, in 1740. This was also the year of his first musical publication, the six Trio Sonatas, Opus 1.[10] These were entitled Sonate sei da chiesa e da camera; Leopold did the work of copper engraving himself.[11] He continued to compose, producing a series of German Passion[12] cantatas.[13].
In 1747 he married Anna Maria Pertl, who bore him seven children, although only two of them survived: Maria Anna Wallburga Ignatia (called "Nannerl") and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart[14]
In 1743 Leopold Mozart was appointed to a position (fourth violinist) in the musical establishment of Leopold Anton Freiherr von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg.[15] 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.[16] He rose no further; others were repeatedly promoted over him to the head position of Kapellmeister.[17]
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,"[18], and Alfred Einstein "judged him to be an undistinguished composer"[19]. For discussion of Leopold's musical works, see below.
Scholars agree, however, that Leopold's 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).[20] 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 appears around this time in music dictionaries and other works of musical pedagogy.[21]
[edit] As teacher of Nannerl and Wolfgang
Leopold 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[23] 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.
The discovery of his children's talent is considered to have been a life-transforming event for Leopold. He once referred to his son as the "miracle which God let be born in Salzburg"[24]. Of Leopold's attitude, the Grove Dictionary says:
- The recognition of this 'miracle' must have struck Leopold with the force of a divine revelation and he felt his responsibility to be not merely a father's and teacher's but a missionary's as well.[25]
By "missionary", the Grove 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 Leopold and the children suffered serious illnesses. Mozart biographer Maynard Solomon (1995) takes the view that the tours were lucrative and produced long-term profits for Leopold; Ruth Halliwell (1998) 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, Leopold 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."[26] After 1762, his compositional efforts seem to have been limited to revising his earlier work; and after 1771 he composed not at all.[27]
The touring continued into the early 1770s. The last three trips were to Italy, with only Leopold accompanying Wolfgang. The failure of Leopold to advance above his Vice-Kapellmeister position at Salzburg is attributed by the Grove[28] 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.
Starting around this time, a major preoccupation of Leopold was the lengthy and frustrating struggle to find a professional position for his son. Leopold was widowed in 1777 when Maria Anna died in Paris while accompanying Wolfgang on a job-hunting tour.
[edit] Relations with his offspring as adults
When his children reached adulthood, Leopold found that his own assessment of their interests disagreed with theirs. He rejected a number of Nannerl's suitors,[29] and she married only in August 1784, at age 33. He counseled Wolfgang to retain his position working at the Salzburg court, and Wolfgang thus disobeyed his father's wishes when he took up a freelance career in Vienna in 1781. Leopold was also opposed to Wolfgang's 1782 marriage to Constanze Weber, and the visit (July-October 1783) of Wolfgang and Constanze to Salzburg was "not entirely happy".[30]
Leopold lived without family starting in August 1784 with the marriage of Nannerl, who lived with her husband in nearby St. Gilgen. In 1785 he visited Wolfgang and Constanze in Vienna, at a time when his son's career success was at its peak. He witnessed first hand his son's success as a performer, and on February 12 heard Joseph Haydn's widely-quoted words of praise, upon hearing the string quartets Wolfgang dedicated to him, "Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name: He has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition."[31]
In July 1785, Nannerl came to Salzburg to give birth to her first child, a son. The infant stayed behind with Leopold when Nannerl went home, and with the assistance of his servants, Leopold raised the child, keeping him in his home until his death in May 1787. He frequently sent letters to Nannerl (at least one per week) that usually began with the sentence "Little Leopold is healthy" and offered a full report on the child.[32] Maynard Solomon suggests that in keeping his grandson in his home, Leopold may have hoped to train yet another musical prodigy. For further details of this episode, see Maria Anna Mozart.
[edit] Final illness and death
In his old age Leopold's health declined, particularly during his final year, 1787. He had become seriously ill by April 4, the day Wolfgang wrote him in alarm at the news. He declined slowly, then died suddenly on 28 May.[33]
Little information is available on how Wolfgang took his death, but a postscript he included in a letter to his friend Gottfried von Janequin suggests that, despite the quarrels and partial estrangement, his father's death was a blow to him: "I inform you that on returning home today I received the sad news of my most beloved father's death. You can imagine the state I am in."[34] Mozart did not attend his father's funeral, which can be attributed to the distance to Salzburg and the state of travel in his day.[35]
[edit] Assessment
The assessment of Leopold Mozart as a person and as a father brings forth serious disagreement among scholars. The Grove Dictionary article, by Cliff Eisen, denounces "his misrepresentation at the hands of later biographers":
- A man of broad cultural achievement ... Leopold Mozart may have been haughty, difficult to please and at times intractable, ... but there is no compelling evidence that Mozart was excessively manipulative, intolerant, autocratic or jealous of his son’s talent. On the contrary, a careful reading in context of the family letters reveals a father who cared deeply for his son but who was frequently frustrated in his greatest ambition: to secure for Wolfgang a worldly position appropriate to his genius.[36]
A harsher view is taken by Maynard Solomon, who portrays Leopold as a man who loved his children but was unwilling to give them their independence when they reached adulthood, resulting in considerable hardship for them. For details, see Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna Mozart.
[edit] Musical works
Leopold Mozart's music is inevitably overshadowed by the work of his son Wolfgang, but his Cassation in G for Orchestra and Toys (Toy Symphony), once attributed to Joseph Haydn, remains popular, and a number of symphonies, a trumpet concerto, and other works also survive. He was much concerned with a naturalistic feel to his compositions, his Jagdsinfonie (or Sinfonia da Caccia for four horns and strings) calls for dogs and shotguns, and his Bauernhochzeit (Peasant Wedding) includes bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, a dulcimer, whoops and whistles (ad. lib.), and pistol shots.
His oeuvre was extensive but it is hard to establish either the scope or the quality of it; much is lost and it is not known how representative the surviving works are of his overall output. Some of his work was erroneously attributed to Wolfgang and some pieces attributed to Leopold were subsequently shown to be the work of Wolfgang. Much of what survives is light music but some more significant work survives including his Sacrament Litany in D (1762) and three piano sonatas, all published in his lifetime.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Solomon 1995, 21
- ^ Solomon 1995, 22-23
- ^ Solomon 1995
- ^ Grove (cited below), section 1
- ^ Records of the high-quality English instruments, made by Dollond of London, that he owned in later life appear in the public announcement of his estate sale, 15 September 1787, published in Deutsch 1965, 296-297.
- ^ Solomon 1995, 23
- ^ Solomon 1995, 22-23
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ From his expulsion record, quoted in Solomon 1995, 23
- ^ Solomon 1995, 23
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ In music a Passion tells the story of the last days of Jesus, as in J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ Wolfgang was christened "Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart"; for discussion of his christening name and later versions of his name, see Mozart's name.
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ Leopold is sometimes described as having had the post of "court composer" at Salzburg. The Grove Dictionary, addressing this, says "the title 'Hofkomponist' [court composer], used to describe Mozart in a 1757 report on Salzburg published in F.W. Marpurg's Historisch-kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik, had no official sanction."
- ^ Solomon 1995, 28
- ^ Solomon 1995, 32
- ^ Characterization from Solomon 1995, 33
- ^ Solomon 1995, 32
- ^ Solomon 1995, 32
- ^ Solomon 1995
- ^ From Nannerl's reminiscences, composed 1792 and printed in Deutsch 1965
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ Sources: Wolfgang Plath and Cliff Eisen, cited in Solomon 1995, 33
- ^ Grove, section 1
- ^ Solomon 1995
- ^ Grove, "Mozart", section 4
- ^ Letter from Leopold Mozart to his daughter Maria Anna from February 16, 1785. In the original: "Ich sage ihnen vor gott, als ein ehrlicher Mann, ihr Sohn ist der größte Componist, den ich von Person und den Nahmen nach kenne: er hat geschmack, und über das die größte Compositionswissenschaft." For more details of the occasion, see Haydn and Mozart
- ^ Braunbehrens 1990, 290-291
- ^ Braunbehrens 1990, 290-291
- ^ Source for this paragraph: Braunbehrens 1990 291-292.
- ^ Braunbehrens (1990, 445) notes: "mail from Salzburg took at least three days. Leopold Mozart was already buried by the time his son learned of his death. Mozart could not have arrived in Salzburg for at least six or seven days."
- ^ Grove, "Mozart", section 1
[edit] References
- Braunbehrens, Volkmar (1990) Mozart in Vienna. New York: Grove Weidenfeld.
- Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, article "Mozart". The article is written by Cliff Eisen. Copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press.
- Halliwell, Ruth (1998) The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context, Oxford University Press.
- Solomon, Maynard (1995) Mozart: A Life. Harper Collins.
[edit] External links
- A French Edition of Leopold Mozart's Violinschule
- Free scores by Leopold Mozart in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
