David Pohle, German composer (1624-1695) was one of Heinrich Schütz's most talented pupils. He was born into a family of civic musicians and mine workers in Marienberg in the Saxon Erzgebirge in 1624. The city of Dresden, therefore, was where he spent the formative years of his musical training, as the musical life at the Saxon court
during the first half of the 17th century was renowned throughout Europe. Choirboys and young musicians such as David Pohle were able to learn a great deal simply by being exposed to such a diversity of musical impressions; in addition, the musical training provided by Heinrich Schütz meant that an apprenticeship or employment in the court’s musical establishment or Kapelle was even more valuable to him. The young David Pohle and his brother Samuel next come to our attention as instrumentalists employed in the establishment of Prince Christian and later Duke of Saxe-Merseburg. At the start of the 1650s David Pohle served for two to three years at the court of Landgrave Moritz, known as Moritz the Learned, in Kassel; the city was an important cultural centre at that time, where he could continue his studies of secular vocal and instrumental music. He began his employment in Halle in 1660, where he first held the position of Concertmeister to the ensemble there before being appointed Fürstlichen Kapellmeister on 23 December 1661. Pohle had a variety of tasks to fulfil at the Halle court, which included the composition of music for the liturgy and directing its performance during the court’s religious services, the composition of secular vocal and instrumental works and also sacred vocal works for banquets and chamber performance.
Only a small selection of Pohle’s once extensive oeuvre has survived; the majority of these works are to be found in libraries in Kassel, Wolfenbüttel, Berlin and Uppsala: twenty-five sacred vocal works: Geistliche Konzerte, Kantaten, fifteen secular vocal works, twenty-nine sonatas for four to eight instruments and a few other instrumental works, around two hundred and thirty settings of other sacred texts including motets, chorale arrangements, histories, dialogues, masses and Magnificats — this means that there are around four hundred and five works for ecclesiastical use for church services that can be traced — and five secular texts. None of his works had been printed as they were only performed in a few places (mainly at court) and were therefore distributed in handwritten copies. [from the CD booklet: David Pohle. Complete Sonatas & Ballet Music. Ensemble Clematis. Label Ricercar, 2024]
