Christian Friedrich Penzel

[1] Born in Oelsnitz, Vogtland on 25 November 1737, Penzel was the son of a church sexton.

He began his formal musical training in his native city where he studied under the cantor J. G. Nacke.

Harrer needed the services of a deputy increasingly because he had health problems: he died in July 1755 while taking the waters at Carlsbad.

[4] Following Harrer's death, Penzel helped to run the musical establishment during the "interregnum": he has been described as taking the role of joint "interim music director" alongside the senior prefect Karl Friedrich Barth until the arrival of Harrer's successor in 1756.

Barth had enrolled in the Thomasschule in 1746 and began to copy Bach manuscripts during the composer's lifetime.

[8] The school owned sets of parts for church music by Bach, but it is not always clear where Penzel obtained his source material.

One of Penzel's manuscripts from the 1750s. The work in question, a cantata catalogued as BWV 142 , was attributed by Penzel to Bach, but the attribution is now regarded as spurious.