Johann Ernst Altenburg (15 June 1734 – 14 May 1801) was a German composer, organist and trumpeter.
He achieved musicological importance through his publication Versuch einer Anleitung zur heroisch-musikalischen Trompeter- und Paukerkunst (An Essay on the Introduction to Heroic and Musical Trumpeters' and Kettledrummers' Art) (Halle, 1795).
Altenburg drew together the entire "knowledge" of the art of the trumpet of his time—certainly a concern considering his embossed, interpretive ways.
However, the literature he quotes mainly covers topics in general history, law, and religion.
A small fugue for two clarion lifted from a work by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber nearly a century earlier also appears.