Through Benda's neglect manuscripts of Stölzel's works in Gotha were lost. In Sondershausen Stölzel's works were copied, performed and conserved. Surprisingly Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf did not list any church cantatas by Stölzel in his catalogues of 1761, 1764 and 1770. Johann Kirnberger considered Stölzel to be one of the greatest contrapuntists, and illustrated his "Die Kunst des reinen Satzes" with music by Stölzel. C. P. E. Bach adopted several movements of Stölzel's "Sechs geistlichen Betrachtungen des leidenden und sterbenden Jesus" in his 1771 "Lukas-Passion" and his 1772 "Johannes-Passion" pasticcios. After C. P. E. Bach's death in 1788 three of Stölzel's cantata cycles were found in his legacy.