Tracing The Trail Of Musical Fathers

With Father’s Day coming up this weekend, Morning Edition music commentator Miles Hoffman has been thinking about a few musical dads and their children.

“Leopold Mozart is always a good place to start,” Hoffman says, “because we have so many letters from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father. And we know it was a fraught relationship.”

Leopold trained his son, recognizing his genius and touring him all over Europe when the younger Mozart was a child prodigy. Mozart did owe his career to his father. But later, when Leopold tried to give him advice, Hoffman says, Mozart resisted.