Tomášek (or Tomaschek), Václav Jan Křtitel Wenzel Johann (1774–1850)

Bohemian composer, organist, and pianist. He wrote songs, piano and chamber music, three symphonies, church music, and three operas. His early symphonies followed classical models, while his keyboard works pioneered the type of short lyric piano pieces of the Romantic era. His 13 volumes in this genre were popular all over Europe and directly influenced Schubert. His memoirs provide much information about the musical life of his time.

His father had been reduced to poverty, and he was educated at the expense of two elder brothers. He became a choirboy at the monastery of Jihlava, but left in 1790 to study law and philosophy in Prague. He also studied the great theoretical treatises on music, and any music he could obtain, establishing a reputation as a teacher and composer before the end of the century. Count Bucquoi von Longueval offered him a well-paid post in his household, to which he remained attached even after his marriage to Wilhelmine Ebert in 1823. He often visited Vienna, where he met Beethoven in 1814, and he played his settings of Goethe's poems to the poet at Eger. He published his autobiography in instalments 1845–50.

Works Opera and stage Seraphine (1811) and two not produced; vocal scenes from Goethe's Faust and Schiller's Wallenstein, Maria Stuart, and Die Braut von Messina.

Sacred and secular music three Masses, including Coronation Mass (1836), two Requiems, and other church music.

Orchestral and chamber three symphonies (1801, 1805, 1807), two piano concertos (1805–06); three string quartets (1792–93), piano trio; five piano sonatas, Elegie auf eine Rose (after Hölty), seven sets of Eclogues and two of Dithyrambs and many other works for piano; numerous songs to words by Goethe, Schiller, and others.