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The Mozart Family |
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The Mozart Family
One family – two child prodigies. The special talent of the Mozart children was a great challenge to both their parents and their environment. The father, Leopold Mozart, devoted his life to his son's education and career. When Mozart began to go his own way, he left behind a disappointed old man in Salzburg.
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, better known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was born on January 27, 1756 at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg. His parents, Leopold and Maria Anna Mozart, were afraid for their son's life at birth, five of his siblings having died as infants. Only the four-year-old Maria Anna, known to the family as "Nannerl", had survived. But young Wolfgang lived through the worst and soon displayed a remarkable talent for music.
Leopold Mozart was born in 1719 as the son of a bookbinder in Augsburg. Initially destined to become a priest, he devoted himself to music and entered the services of the Salzburg Archbishop as a contrabassist. He eventually achieved the rank of the vice kapellmeister for the court. His compositions (symphonies, concerts, chamber music pieces) were overshadowed by his son. However, his "Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule", a comprehensive treatise on violin playing (1756), has remained one of the most important textbooks on instrumental performance to this day. Leopold Mozart died in Salzburg in 1787 at the age of sixty-eight.
Mozart's mother, Maria Anna Mozart née Pertl, was born in 1720 in St. Gilgen near Salzburg. She companied her son on a trip to Paris in 1777, where she died in July 1778.
The two child prodigies, Wolfgang and Nannerl, grew up under their father's watchful eye. He noted their rapid progress, particularly that of his son, with great pride. Although his father tried to direct the four-year-old's attention to toys and games, Wolfgang's mind was on music and everything he did had to be accompanied by music. The Mozart children grew up in a happy family with a dog, cats, birds and a host of friends. Everyone met on Sundays for the popular target shooting known as "Bölzlschiessen". The family developed its own secret code for their correspondence.
"Herr Father" always came first with the children, the mother playing a subordinate role next to her strict husband. Wolfgang, well-known for his crude language, was one of his mother's willing pupils. She loved crude jokes and was fond of unladylike, unrefined expressions.
The father had great plans for his two wunderkinder. He gave up his teaching and composing ambitions to be able to devote his complete time to the education of his children. His journeys across Europe were to become triumphal. He planned every step down to the last detail and continued to take over all of Mozart's organizational duties in later years. He was very intent on obtaining a prominent and well-paid job for his son at one of the European courts. Mozart's ambivalent attitude towards him continued to dominate his private and professional life as an adult.
It was painful and disappointing to Leopold Mozart to realize that his son was gradually becoming independent. He kept trying to exert pressure on his son. For example, he did not give his consent to marry Constanze Weber until after the couple had married.
The fact that he only lived for and through his son became his fate. He only saw his son twice in the last six years of his life. Mozart did not attend his father's funeral in Salzburg. The two siblings divided up their father's modest estate.
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