Ahle, Johann Rudolf

views updated

Ahle, Johann Rudolf

Ahle, Johann Rudolf, German organist, writer on music, and composer, father of Johann Georg Ahle; b. Mühlhausen, Dec. 24, 1625; d. there, July 9, 1673. He studied theology at the Univ. of Erfurt, where he also served as a cantor and organist. From 1654 to 1673 he was organist at St. Blasius in Mühlhausen, and then was elected burgomaster shortly before his death. He publ. the theoretical vol. Compendium musices pro tenellis (Mühlhausen, 1648; later eds. by his son). Ahle was best known as a composer of sacred vocal music. Some of his songs were sung in Protestant churches in Germany for several centuries. J. Wolf ed. a selection of his works in the Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst, V (1901).

Bibliography

J. Johnson, An Analysis and Edition of Selected Sacred Choral Works of J.R. A. (diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1969).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire