Rudolf Straube

Rudolf Straube was a German lutenist and composer born in Trebnitz around 1717 and died in London around 1780. His work belongs to the late Baroque of Central Europe and Britain, and his importance rests above all on his music for lute and guitar.

In the early 1730s he sang in the choir of the Thomasschule in Leipzig under the direction of J. S. Bach. In February 1740 he enrolled at the university in that city. In 1754 he visited Erfurt, where he presented several compositions to Jakob Adlung, who described him as a good lutenist and a keyboard player well trained in Bach's school, although at that time his interests seemed to lie chiefly in travel. He also appears to have become known as a performer on the English guitar. He eventually settled in London, where C. F. Pohl included him among the musicians active there in 1759.

His output reflects many features of the Baroque style: binary structures, a conservative opening figuration and marked rhythmic vigour. His pieces for lute and guitar, very well suited to the instrument, often include accompaniment for violin or keyboard. Among the documents associated with his name is a dialogue with Thomas Gainsborough concerning the purchase of a lute, preserved in the British Library. His legacy, though modest, documents the musical life of eighteenth-century England.