Four Dances from 'Don Juan'

Leopold Mozart’s education of his son surely ranks as the most important of his many accomplishments. And it was accomplished not only by teaching traditional counterpoint, composition and performance, but also by providing Wolfgang with significant models. To this end, Leopold assiduously collected music from all over Europe, not only when the family was on tour, but also during their time in Salzburg. Leopold Mozart also copied our four dances from Gluck’s ballet Don Juan (Vienna, 1761). His dating of his autograph score now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, is uncertain although it probably dates from sometime during the 1760s. Mozart’s edition is interesting not only in its own right but also in the light it sheds on his shaping of Wolfgang’s musical ideals.