is overriding goal became to secure employment for his son outside of Salzburg. In 1777, Colbredo refused to give Leopold leave to accompany his son on a job-hunting trip to Germany and France. Leopold made every effort to manage the tour by letter from Salzburg; he soon began to lose control of events. First, in Mannheim, Mozart tarried and fell head over heels in love with Aloysia Weber. Leopold saw this love a threat and urged Mozart to continue on to France. Second, in Paris, Anna Maria became ill and died. Leopold had a hard time comprehending his loss. He wrote: "It is mysteriously sad when death severs a very happy marriage -- you have to experience it before you can realize it." Third: the bond between him and his son been damaged. Leopold made it clear that he held Mozart responsible for Anna Maria's death. Yet after his wife's death, he realizes that he needed his son more than ever. After Mozart returned to Salzburg, he would do everything in his power to keep him there. Mozart was defying his father as well, a fact that became clear when he courted and married Constanze Weber against Leopold's advice. At last, Leopold gave his consent, but he and his son both knew that is was only a matter of form. Mozart, who usually closed his letters to his father with the words "I am your most obedient son," virtually stopped writing to him, because he became very busy with his own family and career. In his letters to Nannerl, Leopold stopped referring Mozart by name but by calling him, "my son" or "your brother." In the fall of 1783, Mozart and Constanze went to see Leopold to set things right, and there is some evidence that Leopold's attitude towards his son and daughter-in-law softened somewhat when he visited them in early 1785. In Vienna Leopold was able to experience Mozart's popularity at its peak. "We never get to bed before one o'clock and I never get up before nine," he complained in a letter home to Nannerl. "We lunch at two ...
