The Mozarts, Who They Were (Volume 1). Diego Minoia
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and a walk with a friend.
The bond with her brother, which was very strong in infancy and childhood, abated as Wolfgang matured. They grew even farther apart after his departure for Vienna in 1781, and especially after their father's death. In the letters that were discovered after Leopold's passing, it appears that Wolfgang, apart from his words regarding the circumstances, was principally interested in his part of the inheritance and was worried that there were not sufficient pecuniary calculations. In fact, once the assessment was finalized, he asked that payment be made in Viennese currency rather than Salzburg currency, giving him an advantage in the monetary exchange.
In 1784, at 33 years old (a decidedly advanced age for a girl to find a husband in that epoch), Nannerl married Johann Baptist von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, fifteen years her senior and twice widowed with five children, who later had another three with her. Her husband descended from a family of recent and minor nobility. It appears that he wasn't a kind man, making married life less than happy for Maria Anna who also had the responsibility of raising her husband's children from his former marriages. After having refused all of his daughter's suitors, Leopold married her off out of convenience in exchange for 500 florins from von Bertchold as a "Morgengabe", (a promise sealed according to the German tradition made upon the morning after the wedding) and as praetium virginitatis (the price of the virginity of the bride).
After the wedding, Maria Anna moved to her mother's birthplace of St. Gilgen, just a few hours' carriage ride from Salzburg where her husband conducted his business as magistrate and where, in 1792, he obtained the title of Baron. We should clarify, however, that the noble titles of that era did not carry the weight and prestige of previous times. Titles were easily bestowed and were often purchased by well-to-do families who had become affluent.
Moreover, it should be remembered that Count Arco, famous for having dismissed Wolfgang Mozart with a kick in the seat of his pants, was indeed of noble lineage, but was nothing more than an official person in charge of ceremony and "Grand Master of Cooks" of the Prince-Archbishop (he governed the cooks, the servants...and the musicians). After the death of her husband in 1801, Maria Anna moved back to Salzburg where she resumed her activity as a piano teacher. In her last years, she became blind and died in 1829 at the age of seventy-eight.
Wolfgang's father
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (1719 -- 1787) Born in the German city of Augsburg from the second marriage of Johann Georg Mozart, an artisan bookbinder, to Anna Maria Sulzer, who came from a family of textile workers that had moved to Augsburg from Baden-Baden. The Mozart family tree can be traced back three centuries to the Bavarian Swabia, geographically situated west of Munich, which comprised the surroundings of Augsburg and reached what are today's borders of Austria. Leopold's ancestors were farmers, bricklayers and craftsmen (textiles and bookbinders) who relocated from the Augsburg countryside to the city.
Leopold was the first born to Johann Georg Mozart and Anna Maria Sulzer. They had eight children of which only five survived from infancy. Unlike his siblings, who continued working in the family business as bookbinders, Leopold was intended to pursue a career in the clergy by his godfather, Johann Georg Grabher, Dean of the Duomo of Augsburg who noted his strong studious talents. Upon finishing elementary school, he was enrolled in 1727 at the Gymnasium which required a six year course of study. Leopold completed the program two years later than the established six years (it is not clear if the reason was due to illness or resistance to discipline and attitude toward the priesthood), though he did graduate in 1735 magna cum laude. In accordance with the times, we can assume that his cultural level was certainly superior to that of the average citizen. The Jesuit school was, in fact, recognized by the city and neighboring regions for its level of culture, so much so, that the children of the noble and upper-classes attended the institution.
The school curriculum foresaw multi-year courses in Latin and Greek, Philosophy, Logic, as well as Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Theology and Rhetoric. During Leopold's years of study, he also underwent a musical formation related to singing (he was a singer in religious ceremonies and theatrical exhibitions), keyboard instruments (organ and harpsichord) and the violin. It appears that he participated in various scholastic performances and in eight theatrical plays as an actor and singer.
It is important to highlight that in that epoch, instrumental education was not disassociated from the elements of composition, in consideration of the fact that the best instrumentalists were put to the test of their capacity to improvise. In order to accomplish this, they had to acquire at least the basics that would allow them to be proficient in moving on a harmonic series and to variate melodies by modulating within the closest keys. After the Gymnasium, Leopold was enrolled at the St. Salvator Lyceum of the Jesuits (a two or three year program), but upon the death of his father, he suspended his studies before the end of the first year.
At that point, he could have followed in his father's footsteps in the family bookbinding business or return to his studies and conclude his sacerdotal training. He was not, evidently, inclined toward either and decided to leave Augsburg (abandoning his widowed mother and younger siblings) and move to Salzburg where he enrolled in the local Benedictine University to study Philosophy and Law where he initially did well (he earned his Baccalaureate in Philosophy with magna cum laude in his Logic Exam on 22 July 1738). His enrollment documentation is on the registry at the Salzburg University: 7 December 1737, personal information, location of origin, previous studies, enrollment tax. The impoverished and meritorious students were exempt from the university enrollment tax. Leopold paid an enrollment tax of 45 kreutzers, a higher fee compared to the other students on the same list, who payed 30 or 40 kreutzers.
So he began his studies in Philosophy, a two-year course that included Logic, Ethics, and Physics (the Philosophy course was mandatory for all students, after which they could choose a final specialization of study: Theology, Law, Medicine). On 22 July 1738, during the stately ceremony held at 8 o'clock in the Great Hall of the University, the Baccalaureates (a sort of "pre" degree) were proclaimed in the order of their scores. Leopold ranked 49th out of 54 students; he was not the most brilliant graduate.
Something, however, led him astray from his university engagements (possibly musical studies, his true passion? Or had he met the woman who was to become his wife? Probably both of these elements had an impact on him) and in 1739 he was expelled from the university for a lack of commitment and poor attendance. He reappears later in the role of valet de chambre with the job of violin musician for Count Johann Baptist von Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis, Canonical of the Cathedral. During those years of study and musical insight and depth, not to mention being self-taught as we have no mention of his teachers' names (with the exception of some probable supervision from his acquaintance, Eberlin, who was the organist for the Court and then Kapellmeister), he composed his first works: the six Church and Chamber sonatas op. 1, dedicated to his "master", a commonly used expression that in that epoch.
He also challenged himself in the composition of singer; vocal pieces with soloists and a chorus accompanied by an organ and numerous instruments. The ambition and the perseverance were not lacking if three years later, in 1743, Leopold Mozart was hired as fourth violin in the orchestra of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Leopold Anton Freiherr von Firmian. Thanks to this post, initially without a salary, eventually guaranteed a regular income and even if he was not wealthy, he was able to marry Anna Maria Pertl in 1747. The violinists were also interrelated with the violin and piano teachers to the young members of the chorus of the Cathedral, an experience that proved useful for future teaching abilities: the instruction provided for his own children and his drafting methods for the violin, which beheld its first edition in 1756, the year of Wolfgang's birth. His career seemed to be progressing at a good pace.
In 1758, he was promoted to second violin in the Princely Orchestra and Composer of the Court with an average annual salary of 400 guldens (florins). And finally, in 1763, the Prince Archbishop Siegmund Christoph von Schrattenbach, to which he had dedicated his text "A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing", nominated him Vice-Kapellmeister. To give an idea of the relative salaries of the musicians in that period, imagine that in 1759, when Franz Joseph Haydn was at the service of Count von Morzin, he earned 200 florins annually and in 1761, when he served Prince Hesterhazy as Vice-Kapellmeister, he earned 400 florins annually.