ABSTRACT
On July 14, 1773 Leopold Mozart and his father Leopold embarked from Salzburg for the two-day coach journey to the Imperial capital of Vienna. In the Mozart literature String Quartets K.168–173 have been cited as influenced by those of Joseph Haydn, not only in his latest Opera 9, 17, and 20, but also the so-called early Opera 1 and 2 and the spurious set known as Opus 3. The growth of the idea that Joseph Haydn was the predominant influence on Mozart's 1773 Viennese quartets begins innocently enough with two comments in Otto Jahn's Mozart biography first published in 1856 and revised in 1867. Like Haydn's quartets, the placement of movement types vary, with the two-central pieces exchanging places when the first movement is slower than Allegro or ends slowly as in K.170 and 171. In addition, Joseph Haydn's name fails to turn up in the earliest biographical essays and criticism.
