Editing Leopold Mozart (section)

===Relations with Wolfgang===

Wolfgang left home for good in 1781, when instead of returning from a stay in Vienna with his employer [[Count Hieronymus von Colloredo|Archbishop Colloredo]] he remained in the city to pursue a freelance career. This effort was to a fair degree successful; Wolfgang achieved great fame and was for a time quite prosperous (though poor planning later changed this status). The move almost certainly aided Wolfgang's musical development; the great majority of his most celebrated works were composed in Vienna.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-04-27|title=Why Mozart Wanted to Stay In Vienna|url=https://interlude.hk/mozart-diaries-28-april-1781-rondo-violin-orchestra-k-373/|access-date=2021-07-16|website=Interlude|language=en-US}}</ref>

As indicated by Mozart's return letters (which alone survive), his father was strongly opposed to the Vienna move, wanting Wolfgang to return to Salzburg. A fairly harsh family quarrel resulted. He was also strongly opposed to Wolfgang's marriage to [[Constanze Mozart|Constanze Weber]] in 1782, and gave his permission late, reluctantly, and under duress.{{refn|{{harvnb|Halliwell|1998|p=383}} suggests that Constanze had already moved in with Wolfgang before marriage, a potential disastrous situation given the mores of the time.|group=n}} Biographers differ on the extent that Constanze was later snubbed by Leopold, if at all, during her visit with Wolfgang (July – October 1783) to Salzburg; the ''Grove Dictionary'' calls the visit "not entirely happy".{{sfn|Grove|loc="Mozart", section 4}}

In 1785, he visited Wolfgang and Constanze in Vienna, at a time when his son's career success was at its peak. He witnessed first hand his son's success as a performer, and on February 12 heard [[Joseph Haydn]]'s widely quoted words of praise, upon hearing the [[Haydn Quartets (Mozart)|string quartets Wolfgang dedicated to him]], "Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name: He has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition."{{refn|Letter from Leopold Mozart to his daughter Maria Anna from February 16, 1785. In the original: "Ich sage ihnen vor gott, als ein ehrlicher Mann, ihr Sohn ist der größte Componist, den ich von Person und den Nahmen nach kenne: er hat geschmack, und über das die größte Compositionswissenschaft." For more details of the occasion, see [[Haydn and Mozart]]|group=n}} The visit was the last time that Leopold saw his son, though they continued to correspond, and Wolfgang sometimes sent copies of his piano concertos and string quartets for Leopold and Nannerl to perform with friends.{{sfn|Halliwell|1998|loc=ch. 24}}

Later in 1785, when Leopold Mozart took in Nannerl's child, Wolfgang was not informed.{{sfn|Halliwell|1998|p=526}} However, in the following year Wolfgang found this out from a mutual acquaintance in Vienna. At this time, Wolfgang wrote to Leopold to ask if he would be willing to take care of his own two children while he and Constanze went on concert tour. Leopold turned him down, probably with harsh words. His letter to Wolfgang does not survive, but his summary to Nannerl of it does (November 17, 1786):
[[File:84 Kommunegruft St. Sebastian Salzburg.jpg|thumb|Communal grave no. 84 in the St. Sebastian Cemetery in Salzburg, where Leopold Mozart was buried<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.salzburg.info/en/sights/churches-cemeteries/sebastianskirche-friedhof |title=St. Sebastian's Church & Cemetery |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Salzburg–Stage of the World |publisher=Tourismus Salzburg GmbH |access-date=March 29, 2020}}</ref>]]
{{quote|Today I had to answer a letter from your brother ''which cost me a lot of writing'', so I can write very little to you ... You'll readily understand that I had to write a very ''emphatic letter'', because he made no lesser suggestion than that I should take ''his 2 children'' into my care, since he would like to make a journey through Germany to England ... The good honest [[silhouette]] maker H[err] Müller had sung ''Leopoldl's'' praises to your brother, so he found out that the child is with me, which I'd never told him: so this was how the good idea occurred to him or perhaps his wife. that would certainly not be bad, – They could travel in peace, – could die, – – could stay in England, – – then I could run after them with the children etc: as for the payment he's offering me for the children, for servants and the children etc: – Basta!{{refn|Italian: "enough"|group=n}} my excuse is forceful and instructive, if he cares to profit from it.<ref>Translation from {{harvnb|Halliwell|1998|pp=526–527}}</ref>}}

For interpretations of this letter, see {{harvnb|Halliwell|1998|p=528}}, which takes a viewpoint sympathetic to Leopold, and {{harvnb|Solomon|1995|p=396}}, which takes a viewpoint sympathetic to Wolfgang.

Starting around the time he wrote this letter and continuing through the first part of 1787, his health was failing. He had become seriously ill by April 4. On this day, Wolfgang wrote to him in alarm at the news, though he did not travel to Salzburg to see him. When Leopold Mozart died on 28 May (see below), Wolfgang was unable to attend the funeral, the travel time to Salzburg being too long.<ref>{{harvnb|Braunbehrens|1990|p=445}}, notes: "mail from Salzburg took at least three days. Leopold Mozart was already buried by the time his son learned of his death. Mozart could not have arrived in Salzburg for at least six or seven days."</ref>

Little information is available on how Wolfgang took his father's death, but a postscript he included in a letter to his friend Gottfried von Jacquin suggests that, despite the quarrels and partial estrangement, his father's death was a blow to him: "I inform you that on returning home today I received the sad news of my most beloved father's death. You can imagine the state I am in."{{sfn|Braunbehrens|1990|pp=291–292}}