Richard Johannes Petzoldt (12 November 1907 – 14 January 1974) was a German musicologist and music critic.
After graduating from high school, he studied musicology at the Friedrich Wilhelms University with Johannes Wolf, Hermann Abert, Arnold Schering, Hans Joachim Moser, Friedrich Blume, Erich von Hornbostel, Curt Sachs and Georg Schünemann.
In 1933, he received his PhD from Arnold Schering with his dissertation The church compositions and secular cantatas of Reinhard Keiser.
After the Second World War he worked as a music critic for various newspapers and magazines and as an employee of the Cultural Office of the City of Leipzig.
From 1949 he was also dramaturg at the Leipzig Opera and editor-in-chief of the magazine Musik in der Schule.