AHJ, Vol. 7 No. 4, Winter 1980

Fig. 5. Manuscript of Wq 139 in the hand of Bach's copyist, Michel (Brussels Conservatory, Littera S., No. 13287).
harp sonata. 21 His successor, Brennessel, of whom
little is known, was not appointed until 1766, four
years after this date. 22 Bach's sonata cannot, therefore,
have been composed for Petrini, and there is
little likelihood that it was written for Brennessel.
Although the position of harpist in the orchestra of
Frederick the Great appears to have been vacant
between the time of Petrini's death and 1766, Berlin
was not without professional harpists during this
time. 23 Petrini had two children who played the harp:
Marie Therese (1736-1824) and Franz (1744-
1819). 24 The name of Therese Petrini appears in
Marpurg's listing for 1754 of the instrumentalists in
the service of Carl, Margrave of Brandenburg­
Schwedt, a member of the royal family who maintained
a chamber ensemble in Berlin. 25 She was
known at the time as an excellent harpist and an
equally capable singer, and because of her dual accomplishment,
she was in great demand as a performer.
Therese's employment by the Margrave apparently
did not require all of her time, especially
after the beginning of the Seven Years' War. Early in
1760 she accepted an invitation to go to Stralsund
(north of Berlin on the Baltic Sea). The winter season
in which she participated there is described as
"brilliant." Officers from the armies of Sweden,
France, Austria, Russia, and Saxony were quartered
near Stralsund, and many musical events were organized
for the entertainment of these visitors. Sev-
Winter/1980
eral of these activities were directed by Johann
Wilhelm Hertel (1727-1789), a composer normally
in the service of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Hertel had spent much of his youth in Neu-Strelitz
(also in the territory of Mecklenburg), and it may
have been through him that Therese Petrini formed
connections which would lead to a future appointment
to the service of the Duke of Mecklenburg­
Strelitz. 26
Therese Petrini's visit to Stralsund in 1760 was so
successful that she was persuaded to extend it, and
half the summer was over before she returned to
Berlin. Her patron, Margrave Carl, died in 1762, but
it is not clear whether his retinue of musicians was
disbanded immediately (in a music journal of 1766,
an oboist and a hornist are listed as remaining members
of the ensemble). 27 At some time vaguely designated
as "later," Therese was engaged as a chamber
singer and harpist at the ducal court at Neu-Strelitz
where she spent the remainder of her life. 28 She may
have left Berlin for Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1762
before Emanuel Bach's harp sonata was composed.
But it is also possible that she stayed in Berlin for
some time after the Margrave's death, and that Bach
wrote the sonata for her, perhaps as a vehicle for the
display of her talents to a prospective employer.
Whether or not Therese Petrini left Berlin in 1762,
her younger brother Franz was probably still living
there in that year. He was to become the most famous
13