The Czech composer Jakub Jan Ryba assisted his father as a teacher and finally settled, in 1788, in Rožmitál, where he continued teaching until his suicide in 1815.

Choral and Instrumental Music
Ryba’s popular Czech Christmas Mass follows the nativity narrative, associating this with the traditional sections of the Mass. His Missa pastoralis of 1788, again principally with Czech texts, also includes fragments of the Latin liturgy. In instrumental music Ryba was prolific: he had over 1,100 compositions to his credit, although much of this vast body of work is now lost. Of 72 quartets, four survive: two with flute and two for strings only.