31 Facts About Leopold Mozart

1.

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, violinist, and theorist.

2.

Leopold Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer grundlichen Violinschule.

3.

Leopold Mozart was born in Augsburg, son of Johann Georg Mozart, a bookbinder, and his second wife Anna Maria Sulzer.

4.

Leopold Mozart developed an interest, which he retained, in microscopes and telescopes.

5.

Leopold Mozart withdrew from the St Salvator Lyzeum after less than a year.

6.

Except for periods of travel, Leopold Mozart spent the rest of his life there.

7.

Leopold Mozart received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1738.

8.

In 1740, Leopold 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.

9.

Leopold Mozart continued to compose, producing a series of German Passion cantatas.

10.

In 1743 Leopold Mozart was appointed to a position in the musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg.

11.

Leopold Mozart's duties included composition and the teaching of violin to the choirboys of the Salzburg cathedral.

12.

Leopold Mozart was promoted to second violinist in 1758 and in 1763 to deputy Kapellmeister.

13.

Leopold Mozart rose no further; others were repeatedly promoted over him to the head position of Kapellmeister.

14.

The question of whether Leopold Mozart was successful as a composer is debated.

15.

Scholars agree that Leopold Mozart was successful as a pedagogue.

16.

Leopold Mozart discovered that his two children were musically gifted in about 1759, when he began with keyboard lessons for the seven-year-old Nannerl.

17.

Leopold Mozart once referred to his son as the "miracle which God let be born in Salzburg".

18.

Since the instruction took much of his time, and the touring kept him away from Salzburg for long periods, Leopold Mozart cut down his activities in other areas.

19.

Leopold Mozart's wife died in 1778 in Paris while accompanying Wolfgang on a job-hunting tour.

20.

Leopold Mozart is a controversial figure among his biographers, with the largest disagreements arising concerning his role as the parent of adult children.

21.

One possibility, frequently entertained by biographers, is that the marriage was blocked by Leopold Mozart, who liked having Nannerl at home as the lady of the house.

22.

Leopold Mozart moved to the home of her new husband, Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, in the small rural town of St Gilgen, roughly six hours journey east of Salzburg.

23.

Leopold Mozart relayed news from Salzburg, Munich, and Vienna to divert her, did his best to organize the maintenance of her fortepiano, paid for Wolfgang's music to be copied and arranged for her to receive it; collected musicians together when she had visited him so that she could play it with most of the parts;.

24.

Leopold Mozart frequently sent letters to Nannerl that usually began with the sentence "Leopoldl is healthy", and offered a full report on the child.

25.

Leopold Mozart apparently found raising his grandson a happy experience.

26.

Leopold Mozart was strongly opposed to Wolfgang's marriage to Constanze Weber in 1782, and gave his permission late, reluctantly, and under duress.

27.

Later in 1785, when Leopold Mozart took in Nannerl's child, Wolfgang was not informed.

28.

Leopold Mozart's music is inevitably overshadowed by the work of his son Wolfgang, and in any case the father willingly sacrificed his own career to promote his son's.

29.

Leopold Mozart's oeuvre was extensive, but only recently have scholars begun to assess 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.

30.

Cliff Eisen, who wrote a doctoral dissertation on Leopold Mozart's symphonies, finds in a Symphony in G major examples of his "sensitivity to orchestral colour" and a work that "compares favourably with those of virtually any of Mozart's immediate contemporaries".

31.

Some of his work was erroneously attributed to Wolfgang and some pieces attributed to Leopold Mozart were subsequently shown to be the work of Wolfgang.