Johann Gotthilf Ziegler was a German baroque composer and organist.
Background
He is a descendant of a musical family, not unlike that of J.S. Bach, though on a somewhat smaller scale, and belongs, together with Gottfried Kirchhoff and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow to the group of composers of the so-called Hallischen Spätbarock. His father was the schoolhead and organist Daniel Ziegler (born 1630), son of the Saxon schoolteacher Johann Ziegler.
Career
Ziegler had already caused a stir as a child prodigy at the Dresdener court of August the Strong, as his contemporary Johann Gottfried Walthers, a distant cousin of Bach, wrote in his Musicalischem Lexicon that he could sing at the age four, play the keyboard a couple of years later, and as a 10-year-old play the organ at religious services. Gotthilf became a pupil of Christian Petzold, organist of the Sophienkirche. He also studied three years in the Collegium musicum des Paedagogium regium of August Francke, in Halle, where he also studied law and theology for 3 years.
In 1715 Gotthilf also took lessons with Johann Sebastian Bach, especially in the art of choral music
In 1714 he became assistant of the organist A. Meissner in the Ullrichskirche in Halle. Four years later he succeeded Meissner as organist and Director musicis until his own death in 1747.
He also acted as Bach"s agent in the sale of various musical printings. Ziegler was married to Anna Elisabeth Krüger, with whom he had 5 children.