page_title: Leopold Mozart
section_title: Early career as musician
hierarchical_section_title: Leopold Mozart / Life / Early career as musician
context_page_description: Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, music teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.
context_section_description: In 1740, 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. This was also the year of his first musical publication, the six Trio Sonatas, Opus 1. These were titled Sonate sei da chiesa e da camera; Leopold did the work of copper engraving himself. He continued to compose, producing a series of German Passion cantatas.
  In 1747 he married Anna Maria Pertl, who bore him seven children, although only two of them survived past infancy:
  Johann Leopold Joachim (August 18, 1748 – February 2, 1749)
  Maria Anna Cordula (June 18, 1749 – June 24, 1749)
  Maria Anna Nepomucena Walpurgis (May 13, 1750 – July 29, 1750)
  Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia, Nannerl (July 30, 1751 – October 29, 1829)
  Johann Karl Amadeus (November 4, 1752 – February 2, 1753)
  Maria Crescentia Francisca de Paula (May 9, 1754 – June 27, 1754)
  Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus, Wolferl (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791)
  In 1743 Leopold Mozart was appointed to a position (fourth violinist) in the musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. His duties included composition and the teaching of violin (later, piano) to the choirboys of the Salzburg cathedral. He was promoted to second violinist in 1758 and in 1763 to deputy Kapellmeister. He rose no further; others were repeatedly promoted over him to the head position of Kapellmeister.
  The question of whether Leopold was successful as a composer (either in terms of artistic success or fame) is debated. The Grove Dictionary says that as of 1756, "Mozart was already well-known. His works circulated widely in German-speaking Europe." However, biographer Maynard Solomon asserts that he "failed to make his mark as a composer", and Alfred Einstein "judged him to be an undistinguished composer". 
  Scholars agree, however, that Leopold was successful as a pedagogue. In 1755, he wrote his Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, a comprehensive treatise on violin playing. This work was published in 1756 (the year of Wolfgang's birth), and went through two further German editions (1769, 1787), as well as being translated into Dutch (1766) and French (1770). Today, the work is consulted by musicians interested in 18th century performance practice; see Historically informed performance. This work made a reputation in Europe for Leopold, and his name begins to appear around this time in music dictionaries and other works of musical pedagogy.
caption: The Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, and Nannerl. Watercolor by Carmontelle, ca. 1763[4]
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