Rosenmüller matriculated in the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig in 1640 where he probably studied music with Tobias Michael. He taught at the School of St. Thomas for over a decade, and in 1651 he was also appointed organist of the church of St. Nicholas.

Although in 1653 the city council of Leipzig promised him the succession to the cantorate of the Church of St. Thomas, his career abruptly halted in the spring of 1655 when he and several of the schoolboys were arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of homosexuality.

He escaped from prison and by early 1658 was employed at St. Mark’s in Venice, where he later established himself as a composer.

Between 1678 and 1682 he also held the position of composer at the Ospedale della Pietá, the famous girls’ orphanage where Antonio Vivaldi was director of music for most of the first half of the 1700s. Rosenmüller composed hundreds of instrumental and vocal works with a clear Italian influence, mostly of Legrenzi and Corelli.

Most of his vocal music is sacred and the inventories of manuscript collections of the time attest to his popularity during his lifetime. His vocal works also show the influence of Heinrich Schütz.