ADRIANA BERA - Leopold Mozart, Piano Teacher?
Abstract
This paper seeks to answer the question: How is it possible that the only piano teacher of the most brilliant keyboard virtuoso of the late 18th century, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was a violinist? Firstly, we have to consider that this teacher, his father Leopold Mozart, was a much more complex and cultivated musician than is usually accepted. Profoundly attached to the ideas of the Enlightenment, he was able to give his son a solid education and prepare him for the requirements of the musical life of the period. It was a time when composition and performance were not separated, hence the training of a musician was very complex, quite different from standard practice nowadays, and had a special emphasis on accurate and expressive sight-reading, and on improvisation. The keyboard instrument was a necessary tool for every professional musician. Music was learned by playing piano, and piano playing was learned by studying music. Should such an approach be a desirable alternative to contemporary musical education, based mainly on reproduction and competition?
Keywords
Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, musical education, composition, piano playing