Skip to main content

Primary sourceBook1756

Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule

Leopold Mozart · 1756

Leopold Mozart's 1756 violin textbook, published the year Wolfgang was born, showing the teaching method behind his son's training.

This treatise by Mozart's father reflects the teaching method that shaped Wolfgang's musical training from childhood.

Ask Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Engraved portrait of a man with powdered hair playing a violin, set within an ornate rococo frame. Sheet music and a book inscribed with Leopold Mozart's name lie at the bottom left, with a Latin quotation below.
Leopold Mozart, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, Augsburg, 1756.

About this source

What it is

This is a textbook on violin playing written by Leopold Mozart and published in 1756 in Augsburg. It explains technique and musical interpretation, and went through further German editions as well as Dutch and French translations.

Why it matters

Leopold Mozart was a court musician in Salzburg who taught both his children, Maria Anna (Nannerl) and Wolfgang, exclusively himself; both became extraordinary musicians. This book shows the careful, thoughtful teaching approach—stressing technique together with musical feeling, or Affekt—that shaped young Wolfgang's early training.

Look closer

  • What does this book suggest about how Leopold trained his children, including Wolfgang?
  • Why might a father who was himself a professional musician write a textbook rather than just teach privately?
  • What parts of Wolfgang's musical education might this book NOT reveal?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sources

Meet the AI Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart →
Vintage printed playbill for the first performance of Die Zauberflöte, September 30, 1791, Theater auf der Wieden, Vienna. Large title, cast list, and notes on Mozart's music and the Kupferstiche, with decorative engravings.Document

Primary source

The Magic Flute

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1791

Sepia photograph of a young boy in an 18th-century style outfit with a powdered wig, a frilled cravat and a long embroidered coat, standing beside a harpsichord, with a German caption reading Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, als sechsjähriger Knabe.Photograph

Secondary source

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of six

A. Lenisch

Ornate 1786 playbill for the Vienna Imperial National Court Theater announcing Le Nozze di Figaro / Die Hochzeit des Figaro, a Singspiel in four acts with music by Kapellmeister Mozart. Decorated with cherubs, urns, and an eagle crest.Document

Primary source

The Marriage of Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1786

Handwritten manuscript score on aged paper, first page of the overture titled 'Ouverture' with 'Don Juan' written above. Multiple staves of notated music in ink, with a library stamp and shelfmark near the bottom.Document

Primary source

Don Giovanni

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1787

Manuscript page of Mozart's Requiem, handwritten orchestral score with staves for violins, viola, horns, bassoons, clarinets, trumpets, choir parts and bass, headed 'Requiem' and 'Adagio' with Mozart's signature and date 1791.Document

Primary source

Requiem

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · 1791

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions