Diego Minoia - The Mozarts, Who They Were (Volume 1)

In truth, even outside of Salzburg, Leopold Mozart did not always receive testimony of a kind character. In a letter from Vienna written by the musician Johann Adolph Hasse in September 1769, we find a description which is, all in all, quite favorable: "a man spirited, crafty and masterful...he is refined and courteous as are his children", though the term "crafty" may possibly not be the most flattering interpretation. A year later, Hasse revises his opinion in a letter from Naples (where Leopold and Wolfgang were staying during the course of their first journey to Italy): "The father? From what I gather, he is in any case constantly dissatisfied, even while here, he made the same complaints; he is a bit too devoted to his son and does, therefore, do his best to spoil him".

Leopold's subtle inclination to rebellion, likewise criticized in Wolfgang's character, was witnessed by those who knew him, such as his classmate from youth, Franziskus Freysinger, who remembers him as "a good and honest man", and also with quite a lot of admiration for "how he made fun of the priests regarding their vocation (the priesthood -- A/N)". The rebellious character and probably a bit of impudence in his youth seem to reflect in his records from the Dean at the University of Salzburg that cite his expulsion for having attended his lessons only once or twice, noting that the young Leopold "received his sentence and walked off as if he were indifferent".

The choice to abandon his family and his birthplace after the death of his father (possibly an escape from responsibility and authority?) combined with the shame fallen upon the family members due to his expulsion from the University and the choice to follow a career as Chamberlain and Court Musician were surely not unrelated to his future relations with his mother. He testifies to the fact that she refused him his dowry in the amount of the rather large sum of 300 florins, as she had alternatively done on the occasion of the weddings of his siblings.

We will talk more about this later, as well as the lies written over the same period of time for the request for income by the state of Augsburg and for a permit to marry. Within the letters of the epistolary, we find more than one topic. His widowed mother (who had a cantankerous and quarrelsome personality much like her son) and his siblings survived, at any rate, without particular problems related to his radical choice. Only one of his brothers wrote in request for the occasional loan, which was either granted against his will or refused by Leopold, in less than a Christian manner.

His religious ideals, seeing as we have reached this topic, were ever present in his letters (let us not forget that he lived in a religious princedom and was completely dependent on the benevolence of the Archbishop, his "master"). He certainly respected the concepts of his faith rather than what they truly represented. We find the outbursts of his mindset as proof within the epistolary where he reveals disdain of anyone who wore a cassock, as well as in the episode of the publication in 1753 of an anonymous allegation against two members of the Salzburg clergy.

Leopold was summoned to the magistrate of the Cathedral, accused of being the author of the offensive pamphlet (let us not forget that he lived in a police state where monitoring and informing were efficient) and was forced to apologize in order to avoid prison, while the pamphlet was ripped to shreds in front of him.

This episode, combined with his irritable personality, may have had something to do with the difficulty he faced in building his career, given that on many occasions, others were chosen over him for positions to which he aspired. Concerning his faith, his invocation of God and the desire in which he filled his letters appear somewhat methodical, more like the acceptance of a zealous faith relative to how much the society expected of a good Christian. The fact that he had paid to have masses celebrated upon the occasion for the recovery from illness, as well as gaining favor for the successful outcome of Wolfgang's compositions appears to have been more of a utilitarian attitude (which was certainly common in those times, as it is today) than an act of deeply felt faith.

Personal prayers would have been sufficient rather than delegating others to reach his objectives. Why did he have the masses celebrated in Salzburg when he could have had them done in the locations where he was residing, at least on those occasions when he was in Catholic regions? Could it have been one way of showing off his religious devotion to the citizens? Regarding his "Christian" habit of telling lies and embellishing reality to his advantage is testified by numerous true facts of his life, such as giving younger ages of one or two years of his children during their presentations as "child prodigies" or presenting himself as Kapellmeister while abroad when he was only the Vice.

One last example shows us how since his youth, Leopold had no second thoughts about lying or twisting the truth to his advantage whenever it was convenient for him. In 1747, Leopold was 28 years old and necessitated renewal for his citizenship in Augsburg from the City Council (those who moved away were obliged to renew this permit every three years) and the authorization to reside in Salzburg and to marry (even if he was already married before sending his request and without the permission of his mother, who was never to forgive him) all while keeping citizenship in his birthplace.

Well, in his request he told a series of lies, claiming that his father was alive and well (he had already passed away) and that he had recently moved to Salzburg to continue his studies at the Benedictine University (in truth, he had gone to Salzburg ten years earlier by his own will and against his mother's wishes and had furthermore already suspended his studies). Moreover, he claimed to have endorsements by the Princely Archiepiscopal Court (which he did not possess) and maintained having married the daughter of a wealthy citizen (as we have seen, his wife came from an anything but wealthy family). But we will further discuss this aspect related to his lies and manipulation of the truth, based on what emerges in the epistolary.

To complete the description of Leopold Mozart, we shouldn't forget about his cultural interests. During the course of his travels, he never missed an occasion to visit monuments, museums, works of art in private palaces of which he talks about in the epistolary (the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the paintings by Rubens in Brussels, etc.). He was also interested in the scientific progress of his epoch, staying informed by attending the experimental demonstrations offered by the University of Salzburg to the courtiers, as well as purchasing instruments such as a microscope. He was also interested in pharmacology, so much so, that he brought a collection of powders and recipes with him on his trips to heal the most common diseases, curing himself and his children, unless the severity of the disease didn't require the intervention of a "medicus". If he wasn't able to administer the therapy himself, he would communicate by letter, going into detailed description and at great length to explain to Wolfgang (who was in that period in Munich with his mother) how to cure a phlegmy cough.

The musician

While Leopold's musical formation seems to be rather solid in relation to his instrumental profile (thanks to his studies as a youth at the Jesuit schools in his birthplace in Augsburg), there appears to be no evidence of his attendance with teachers of composition with the exception of his friend and mentor, Johann Ernst Eberlin, who was the organist of the Court from 1727 and Kapellmeister from 1749. This information leads us to believe that his studies were predominantly self-taught with the possible occasional supervision of Eberlin and suggestions from a few friends or acquaintances in the musical circle of Salzburg. Self instruction was, in any case, quite common in that epoch. Antonio Lolli, who appears to have stopped over in Salzburg on his tour, was a self-taught violinist, but this did not stop him from being considered a virtuoso of the instrument, obtaining prestigious and well-paid charges, such as violinist at the Stuttgart Court where he earned an annual salary of 2,000 florins, which was later increased to 2,500. Based on comparison, we should remember that in 1750 Leopold Mozart, as he himself writes in a letter to his daughter, as a violinist in the Court Orchestra and instrument teacher to the children's chorus of the Cathedral earned a monthly salary of 29 florins and 30 kreutzers, which amounts to approximately 360 florins a year. This "tradition" of self-taught virtuosi were not limited to Lolli, since just a few decades later, we had "the" virtuoso par excellence of the violin, Niccolò Paganini, self-taught violinist and guitarist.