Though very young, František Ignác Antonín Tůma (1704-1774) was installed as vice chorus master in Vienna in 1722. He got his first music lessons from his father Václav, a church organist. Later he became a student at the Clementinum, a well-known and important Jesuit college in Prague. He was a member of the school choir under Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský at the Minorites church of St James in Prague. He had several offices as Chapel master of courts throughout Bohemia and Austria.
Although not so very well-known, he was a prolific composer of both sacred and secular music: he wrote 65 masses, 5 Stabat Maters, 29 psalms, 20 litanies, many sonatas, partitas and symphonies.
Tůma’s music is outstanding in the combination of a skilful control of the counterpoint and late-Baroque harmonies with a delicate feeling for melody.