Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke

Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke (Wachenhausen, Harz, 1767 – Hamburg, 1822) was a German pianist, composer and music editor who spent much of his career in Hamburg, where he held a permanent position in the city's musical life. Son of a bassoonist who was also a municipal musician in Hamburg, he showed an early aptitude for the piano.

His training included a stay in Berlin from 1782, where he studied with Marpurg and Kirnberger, followed by university courses in Leipzig and Halle between 1787 and 1788. In 1788 he succeeded C. P. E. Bach as Stadtkantor of Hamburg, a post he held until his death. From 1799 he also contributed to the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.

As a composer he cultivated incidental music, oratorios, cantatas, concertos for piano and oboe, sonatas and lieder, as well as fugues for organ. Among his works, a setting of Klopstock's Vater unser stands out, performed at the poet's funeral. His greatest contribution, however, lies in editing: a profound interest in the music of J. S. Bach led him to prepare one of the first editions of Das wohltemperirte Clavier (Bonn, 1801), in which he added a bar to the first prelude that survived in several later editions, including Czerny's. He also re-orchestrated choral works by Bach and Handel.