Reference works by Johann Adam Hiller (1784) and Ernst Ludwig Gerber (early 1790s) contain biographies of Stölzel. Hiller describes part of Stölzel's music production as "heard today and forgotten tomorrow": over-all light in spirit and, according to the standards of the time when these pieces originated, with pleasurable singing lines over a sparse instrumental accompaniment. Hiller qualifies Stölzel's choral music as full in texture and rich in harmony, and names the "Canonic Mass in thirteen real voices" and the German Te Deum as examples of Stölzel's accomplished style, fully mastering the composition of canons and fugues. Gerber largely repeats Hiller's biographical notes and judgement about Stölzel's music, adding descriptions of Stölzel's 1736 double cantata cycle and vocal chamber music, where the singing voice is treated as an instrumental part, in some passages rather an accompaniment than the leading voice. Gerber praises Stölzel for his art of composing recitatives and summarizes the content of the then still unpublished "Abhandlung vom Recitative".