Johann Rudolph (or Rudolf) Ahle (24 December 1625 – 9 July 1673) was a German composer, organist, theorist, and Protestant church musician.
[1] While not much is known of his early musical training, he attended the grammar school in Göttingen and then studied theology at the University of Erfurt from 1645 to 1649.
[3] The next year he married Anna Maria Wölfer; their son, Johann Georg Ahle (1651–1706), was also a well-known composer and organist.
He is best known for motets and sacred concertos (most of them in German, some in Latin) contained in the collection 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 common German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, including "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier" and "Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit".