Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar
| Prince Johann Ernst | |
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The Red Castle in Weimar where Johann Ernst lived with his brother Duke Ernst August I
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| Born |
25 December 1696 Weimar |
| Died | 1 August 1715 (aged 18) Frankfurt |
| House | House of Wettin |
| Father | Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar |
| Mother | Charlotte Dorothea Sophia of Hesse-Homburg |
| Religion | Lutheranism |
Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar (German: Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar) (25 December 1696 – 1 August 1715) was a German prince, son by his second marriage of Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar. Despite his early death he is remembered as a collector and commissioner of music and as a composer some of whose concertos were arranged for harpsichord or organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, who was court organist in Weimar at the time.
Johann Ernst was born in Weimar, the fourth son and sixth child of Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and second child of the Duke's second wife, Charlotte Dorothea Sophia of Hesse-Homburg. As a young child the prince took violin lessons from G.C. Eilenstein who was a court musician.
He studied at the University of Utrecht between February 1711 and July 1713. It is thought that Johann Ernst furthered his understanding of music at this time. From Utrecht, he could visit such centres as Amsterdam and Düsseldorf and it is known that he had copies of Italian music sent back to Weimar. (Household bills for the year from 1 June following his return record the cost of copying, binding and shelving music.) In particular, it is thought that he might have encountered Vivaldi's opus 3 set of violin concertos. The prince's interest in collecting music was sufficiently well known that P. D. Kräuter, when requesting leave of absence to study with Bach in Weimar, mentioned the French and Italian music that the prince was expected to introduce there. Kräuter also praised Johann Ernst's virtuosity as a violinist.
On his return from university, Johann Ernst took lessons in composition with a focus on concertos from the local church organist Johann Gottfried Walther, a cousin of Bach. Walther had previously given the prince keyboard lessons and had given him his Praecepta der musikalischen Composition (Precepts of Musical Composition) as a twelfth birthday present.
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