Johann Rudolph Ahle[1] (24 December 1625 – 9 July 1673) was a German composer, organist, theorist, and Protestant church musician.
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Ahle was born in Mühlhausen, Thuringia. While not much is known of his early musical training, he studied at the grammar school in Göttingen and then studied theology at the University of Erfurt from 1645 to 1649. In 1646 he became cantor at the Church of St. Andrew in Erfurt. In 1648 he published the Compendium per tenellis, a theoretical treatise on choral singing which was reprinted several times during his lifetime and for a last time 50 years later by his son Johann Georg (the last edition appeared in 1704).
In 1654 Ahle assumed the post of organist at the Church of St. Blasen/Blasius in Mühlhausen. The next year he married Anna Maria Wölfer; their son, Johann Georg Ahle, was also a well-known composer and organist. He was elected a town councilman in Mühlhausen in the 1650s, and was elected mayor shortly before his death in 1673. His immediate successor at St. Blasen/Blasius was his son Johann Georg Ahle (1651-1706), and then briefly Johann Sebastian Bach, who was in Mühlhausen 1707/08.
Much of his compositional output consists of sacred choral and vocal works, instrumental music, and organ music. He is best known for motets and sacred concertos (most of them in German, some in Latin) contained in Neu-gepflanzte Thüringische Lust-Garten, in welchem... Neue Geistliche Musicalische Gewaechse mit 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 und mehr Stimmen auf unterschiedliche Arten mit und ohne Instrument ... versetzet (1657-65). He is also known for hymn melodies, of which three remain in the Evangelical Hymn Book.