Composer. A talented, prolific Bohemian musician of the late classical period. By far his most famous work is the "Czech Christmas Mass" (1796), also known colloquially by its opening words, "Hej, mistre!" ("Hey, Master!"). A musical Nativity of rustic simplicity and wit, it has become a beloved Yuletide tradition in his homeland. Ryba was born in a village near Klatovy in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), the son of a teacher who gave him his first music lessons. With financial aid from an uncle he was able to study at the Piarist Gymnasium in Prague (1780 to 1784). Adverse circumstances, including the illness of his father, drove him back to the country before he could establish himself in the capital. His first major work was the "Festive Mass" in D major (1786). He settled in the rural town of Rozmital as cantor, choirmaster and teacher in 1788. Two years later he married Anna Langlerova, who bore him 13 children, nine of whom survived. Ryba was a tireless worker, often in conflict with the local priest and authorities over his efforts to improve his school's curriculum. When he wasn't teaching, conducting or composing, he wrote theoretical treatises and translated Greek and Latin texts into Czech. Isolated from Bohemia's cultural centers, he kept informed of musical trends through a wide correspondence. His published scores brought some notoriety his way. In 1805 he was named an honorary citizen of Pilsen, where his music was well received; in gratitude he composed over 50 sacred pieces for the city. Ryba's last years were marked by deepening depression over his life as a schoolmaster, the struggle to feed his large family, health issues, and the feeling that his talents had been wasted in a backwater. On April 8, 1815, after attending morning mass, he walked into the forest near Rozmital and took his own life. He was 49. As a suicide he was denied a religious funeral and buried in a plague cemetery outside of town. Locals placed a small stone cross on the site where his body was found as a gesture of respect. Meanwhile, the popularity of the "Czech Christmas Mass" began to spread through Central Europe and may have led to embarrassing inquiries about the author's fate in Rozmital. In 1855, Ryba was granted a special dispensation for reinterment in the Rozmital Cemetery; that same year a stone mound was erected at his forest memorial, with a miniature grotto sheltering the original cross. Interest in the Mass faded in the early 20th Century but was revived in 1965, when the communist government of then-Czechoslovakia allowed a stereo recording to be made. Ryba is believed to have left over 1300 compositions, most of them now lost. They included 90 masses, 7 requiems, 40 pastorales (small Christmas cantatas), 25 symphonies, 72 string quartets, concertos for violin, cello, and piano, songs, and hundreds of shorter sacred and chamber pieces. He wrote with such assurance in the Viennese classical manner that for many years his Mass in E flat was mistakenly attributed to Haydn. More important was his support of a controversial new trend in his country's liturgical music. In performances of a mass, it became customary (especially in the provinces) to intersperse the Latin sections with folk-based material in Czech to help listeners better understand the text. Ryba did this in his "Missa Pastoralis" (1788) and "Bohemian Shepherd Mass". The "Czech Christmas Mass" dispenses with the liturgy altogether. Artists aren't always the best judges of their creations. Ryba thought so little of the "Czech Christmas Mass" that he glossed it over in his 1798 list of compositions, mentioning only "seven Christmas Masses, one in the Czech language". This is ironic, for it was when he embraced Czech folk idioms that his music was at its most original and charming.