Tuma, Franz
1704-1774
Celebrated church composer and a virtuoso on the viola da gamba; born at Kosteletz, Bohemia. He studied with Cernhorsky at Prague, then with Fux in Vienna, and in 1741 became chapelmaster to the Dowager Empress Elizabeth, a position which he held until her death, in 1750, when he received a pension. He entered the monastery of Geras in 1760, and later went to Vienna, where he died in the monastery of the Barmherzigen Brüder. He wrote a number of excellent church compositions somewhat after the style of Bach, of which the most celebrated are the grand mass in G minor and that in E minor. Other works are Miserere; Sinfonie a tre; Responses to the Lectiones et Lamentationes, and many masses. All his compositions are in manuscript form.