MOZART, Leopold (1719–1787)

Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule

Augsburg: Johann Jacob Lotter, 1756 [first edition]

A significant association copy – albeit defective – of the first edition of Leopold Mozart’s famous Violinschule, bearing the ownership signature of the violinist Emil Seifriz, brother of and collaborator with the violinist, composer and conductor Max Seifriz (1827–1885).

The volume is bound in early paper-covered boards; the spine is deteriorated; the title-page and frontispiece are supplied in early manuscript (though the title is transcribed from a later edition); all plates are supplied in naive manuiscript tracing, and pp. 51–4, and the entire index, are likewise supplied in manuscript. All text before the preface (‘Vorbericht’) is absent, i.e. the quotation by Aristeides Quintilianus, the dedicatory letter to the Archbishop of Salzburg, the folded musical plate, and, as in almost all surviving editions, the errata sheet and the report to the bookbinder.

The Seifriz brothers were born in Rottweil in Baden-Württemberg; their father, a shoemaker and amateur violinist, taught them violin. Max’s career is well documented; Emil’s less so. Max held a number of significant posts, knew Richard Wagner, and composed his own works. Emil eventually followed his older brother to Stuttgart, where both worked at the court theatre, with Max as director. In the 1880s Max made his own contribution to the ‘Violinschule’ tradition, writing a multi-volume work with Edmund Singer.

Emil Seifriz has attached an ownership label to the inside of the cover, giving the location as Rottweil – suggesting ownership in the formative stage of his career

Condition: poor; in addition to the points noted above, some of the manuscript pages themselves are loose; there is sporadic worming to the volume, though this does not affect the text; textblock somewhat worn but generally in very good condition, noting some faint dampstaining to the lower right-hand corner. Overall an exceptionally well used copy, priced as such, but with a connection to a significant family in 19th century German music history.