Biography
Born in 1636 in Löwenberg, southwestern Poland, Esaias Reusner established himself as a German lutenist and composer active in the mid-seventeenth century. He contributed substantially to the formation of early instrumental suites and became the earliest German composer writing for lute who integrated French stylistic approaches into his music.
His father, Esaias Reusner the elder, a lutenist himself, supplied the younger Reusner’s initial training. The boy advanced swiftly on the instrument, displaying prodigious musical gifts at an early stage. After his mother died around the time he turned twelve, the family settled in Breslau, where he served one year as page to Count Wittenberg and then held an analogous post under the royal war commissioner beginning in 1649.
From 1651 to 1654 he worked at the court of the Polish princess Radziwiłł and continued his lute studies with an unnamed French lutenist. In 1655 he received his first professional appointment as lutenist at the Breslau court of Georg III, Duke of Silesia, and around the same period he issued his first collection of lute pieces, Delitiae Testudinis. After eighteen years he moved to Germany and undertook a brief period of instruction in flute and lute at Leipzig University before taking up duties as lutenist at the court of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg in 1674, a position he held until his death in 1679.
His father, Esaias Reusner the elder, a lutenist himself, supplied the younger Reusner’s initial training. The boy advanced swiftly on the instrument, displaying prodigious musical gifts at an early stage. After his mother died around the time he turned twelve, the family settled in Breslau, where he served one year as page to Count Wittenberg and then held an analogous post under the royal war commissioner beginning in 1649.
From 1651 to 1654 he worked at the court of the Polish princess Radziwiłł and continued his lute studies with an unnamed French lutenist. In 1655 he received his first professional appointment as lutenist at the Breslau court of Georg III, Duke of Silesia, and around the same period he issued his first collection of lute pieces, Delitiae Testudinis. After eighteen years he moved to Germany and undertook a brief period of instruction in flute and lute at Leipzig University before taking up duties as lutenist at the court of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg in 1674, a position he held until his death in 1679.