He was born in Thal. At the age of 22 he moved to Meiningen eventually being appointed cantor there, and later Kapellmeister. He wrote a large amount of music and regularly oversaw performances, both at Meiningen and neighbouring courts.
He was a second cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach, who made copies of several of his cantatas and performed them at Leipzig. The cantata Denn du wirst meine Seele nicht in der Hoelle lassen, once thought to be by Johann Sebastian, and listed as BWV 15 in Wolfgang Schmieder's catalogue of his works, is now thought to be by Johann Ludwig.