Leopold Mozart

Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) was undoubtedly one of the most interesting and versatile personalities of his time. He was the author of a "violin tutor," renowned and used throughout Europe, and also a productive composer, long-serving court musician and violist, deputy kapellmeister, and a skilled engraver and copyist of music notation. Moreover, he was a successful teacher, wise educator and promoter of his gifted children, a highly regarded scholar, an attentive observer, and an excellent letter writer. He was a loving husband and a caring, occasionally authoritarian father, a convivial host, an educated reader, an art collector, and an enthusiastic theater- and opera-goer. He created a wide circle of contacts and was an ambitious and prudent organizer of journeys and concerts. He was a devout Catholic, Freemason, provocative citizen, free thinker, and a man of the Enlightenment, who supported colleagues as well as widows and orphans of musicians. This book makes the first comprehensiv