Leopold Mozart

Leopold Mozart

By Carl V. Johnson & Jack Galliett

There are very few names that have become as universal with music such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is often overlooked that there was another musical talent within the Mozart family that came before the known superstar. It is sometimes forgotten that Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s father, had a huge impact on Wolfgang’s musical career with teaching him how to play the violin, the harpsichord, and many other instruments with knowledge of the theory behind each one.

Leopold Mozart was born on November 14th 1719 in Augsburg Germany. His father, Johann Georg Mozart was a bookbinder married to his second wife Anna Maria Sulzer. He received his early education from a local Jesuit school known as St. Salvator Gymnasium in Augsburg. He first attended the St. Salvator Gymnasium in Augsburg to learn about logic, theology and science and then moved to the more advanced school called St. Salvator Lyceum. There he started his musical career playing the violin, organ, singer and appeared in theatrical productions put on my the student body. When he left St. Salvator Lyceum, it wasn’t till a year later that he resumed his education at Benedictine University to study philosophy and jurisprudence. The location of the university was in the city of Salzburg which became the resting place of Leopold for the rest of his life. 

Leopold began his career as a professional musician in 1740. WIth becoming a violinist he also had his first publication titled the Six Trio Sonatas. In 1743 he began teaching violin and piano to the choirboys in the Salzburg Church. With this position, he started as the fourth violinist and later moved up to second violinist and Kapellmeister. With position of Kapellmeister, he was able to start composing. Here is one of his compositions titled sonata No. 2 (https://youtu.be/7S1r2bXP5B0). Here is his serenade in D major for Trumpet, Trombone, & String Ensemble (https://youtu.be/907412YF6pY). Unfortunately for him, he did not move any higher while Colleagues would.

After 7 years of composing and teaching he married Anna Maria Pertl and had seven children, but unfortunately only two survived. The names of those children are Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He taught both his children in the musical arts as they appeared to be naturally talented in music. His daughter started learning harpsichord at the age of seven and later became known as an outstanding musician on the harpsichord and the fortepianist. His other child, Wolfgang became the child prodigy that we all know who wrote symphonies and operas. For Wolfgang, Leopold watched closely over him and showed him off to the European world by travelling and performing for the royal courts and the church.

One of the most well known things about Leopold is his book about violin. The book is titled A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing and was published in 1756. The book is still a resource when understanding 18th century performance as it was used frequently in its day. The book talks about how Leopold wanted his students to learn from his instruction and clearly stated his opinions on how a student should learn. But as time has gone on, profession violinist have found that the book is no longer helpful such as how Leopold talk abouts bowing techniques.

 Most people don’t think about how Mozart’s father was such a giant impact to Mozart and his musical career. Leopold was a man from family of bookbinder and always had a burning passion for music. He started young and only grew with each step he took. Leopold Mozart shall be remembered as the man that taught one of the world's greatest musicians through his passions and intelligence of music.

Works Cited

Gay, Peter. Mozart. New York: Lipper/Viking Book, 1999. Print.

"(Johann Georg) Leopold Mozart." HOASM: Leopold Mozart. HOASM, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015. <http://www.hoasm.org/XIIC/MozartL.html>.

"Leopold Mozart." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Mozart>.

"Maria Anna Mozart." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Oct. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Anna_Mozart>.

Work Done:

Carl V. Johnson: Writing, Research

Jack Galliett: Youtube, Pictures