Esaias Reusner was a German lutenist and composer during the mid-1600s. He played an important role in the development of early instrumental suites and was the first German composer for the lute to use French styles in his works. Reusner was born in 1636 in Löwenberg, a town in Southwestern Poland. His father, Esaias Reusner the elder, was also a lutenist and provided his son with his first musical instruction. Reusner progressed quickly on the lute, and his prodigious musical talents were obvious. When he was around the age of 12, his mother passed away, and he moved with his family to Breslau. There he worked as a page to Count Wittenberg for a year, followed by a similar position in the service of the royal war commissioner in 1649. From 1651 to 1654, he was employed by the court of the Polish princess Radziwiłł, and he continued studying the lute with an unidentified lutenist from France. In 1655, Reusner began his first professional appointment as a lutenist, in Breslau at the court of Georg III, Duke of Silesia. It was also around this time that he composed his first collection of works for the lute, Delitiae Testudinis. After 18 years, he moved to Germany and began a short appointment teaching flute and lute at the Leipzig University. He then worked as a lutenist at the court of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg from 1674 until his death in 1679. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi