Search this Blog

Leopold Mozart

Mozart's Father: Leopold Mozart 

German Violinist, Teacher, Composer and Theorist, Wolfgang Mozart's father


While Leopold Mozart (1719-1787), is best known as the devoted father of musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he was a distinguished violinist, a violin teacher, composer and theorist.  Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was born on November 14, 1719 in Augsburg, Germany, to a respectable family of tradesmen. Today he is best known as the father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.






Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a son of a bookbinder. He studied theology at Salzburg University, but was more interested in music. In 1740, He became a violinist and valet to one of the university's canons, Count Thurn und Taxis. In 1747 he married Anna Maria Pertl, who bore him seven children. Of the children, only two survived: Maria Anna Wallburga Ignatia Mozart, called 'Nannerl', and Wolfgang Amadeus, arguably the greatest composer that ever lived.

Important Writings of Leopold Mozart

In 1756, the same year as Wolfgang Amadeus' birth, Leopold wrote his Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, a comprehensive treatise on violin playing and music theory.  This treatise is one of the main sources on performance practice in the 18th century, along with Johann Joachim Quantz's Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversière zu spielen (on flute playing) and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (on keyboard playing).

Compositions

His works include symphonies and other orchestral pieces (concertos and divertimentos), chamber music, masses and other sacred music.

Leopold Mozart died on May 28, 1787, in Salzburg, Austria.


Video Credit: 

Leopold Mozart Seven Symphonies, B. Warchal, SCO.  YouTube, Uploaded by HarpsichordA6.  Accessed November 14, 2016.

Note: This post is a short version of the article I published for Suite101.com (now close) sometime 2007.

(c) 2012. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

No comments:

Post a Comment