Paul Tietjens
Paul Tietjens (; May 22, 1877 – November 25, 1943) was an American composer of the early twentieth century. He is best known for composing music for "The Wizard of Oz", the 1902 stage adaptation of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", one of the great popular hits of its era.

Tietjens was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. At age 15 he appeared as a piano soloist with the St. Louis Symphony. He later studied in Europe with Hugo Kaun, Harold Bauer, and Theodor Leschetizky.

Early in his career, Tietjens's ambition was to establish himself as a successful composer of comic operas and operettas. He approached L. Frank Baum in March 1901, not long after the publication and success of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". According to Baum's later recollection,

:"The thought of making my fairy tale into a play had never even occurred to me when, one evening, my doorbell rang and I found a spectacled young man standing on the mat."

By another report, though, they met through Ike Morgan, a Chicago artist who worked on Baum's "American Fairy Tales" (1901). Baum and Tietjens agreed to develop stage projects together. Curiously, their first attempts had nothing to do with Oz. They wrote a show titled "The Octopus, or The Title Trust", which was rejected by producers in Chicago and New York. Their next venture was a musical called "King Midas", which was never completed.

It was illustrator W. W. Denslow who suggested a "Wizard of Oz" stage adaptation. Though Baum was at first cool to the idea, Tietjens was enthusiastic. Baum prepared a libretto, and the project went forward. Tietjens included two songs from "The Octopus" ("Love Is Love" and "The Traveler and the Pie"). The show went through many script revisions and changes; Tietjens's score was supplemented with music composed by A. Baldwin Sloane and others. Quarrels over the partitioning of the royalties (Denslow was co-copyright holder of the book, and designed the sets and costumes for the musical) led to a permanent rupture between Baum and Denslow. Yet the show premiered in Chicago on 16 June 1902, and moved to Broadway in January 1903. It was an enormous hit. It ran through 1907 and then toured widely. The income from the show made Tietjens financially independent at a relatively early age.

Tietjens, however, never equaled that early popular success in subsequent shows. He wrote "The Sacred Serpent" (1904), a three-act musical comedy. He composed incidental music for J. M. Barrie's play "A Kiss for Cinderella". He worked with Baum on another project, called "The Pipes o' Pan" (which might have been a revised version of "King Midas"); it was never produced, and survives only in a fragment.

In 1904 he married the poet Eunice Strong Hammond, who became known under her married name, Eunice Tietjens. They had two daughters, Idea and Janet. The death of their elder daughter Idea at the age of four may have contributed to the break-up of the marriage; the couple separated in 1910 and divorced in 1914.

In addition to his works for popular theater, Tietjens composed symphonies, a concerto, sonatas, and chamber works. His most significant serious work is arguably his opera "The Tents of the Arabs". In 1916 he was about to produce an opera in Berlin but WW1 shut it down just before opening night. Tietjens compositions were confiscated and he was accused of being a spy. He was arrested in London and was only released when Frederick W. Well, former Berlin correspondent for the New York Times and the London Daily Mail, intervened. Although Tietjens returned to America, his musical scores and compositions were apparently never recovered. 

Tietjens spent much of his life in Europe. He married the artist Marjorie Richardson December 25, 1927 He and his wife Marjorie Tietjens lived in New York City through 1942. When his health failed in 1942, he and his wife returned to St. Louis to live with his sister, Olga Dammert, and he died there the following year. His manuscripts are in the Gaylord Musical Library at Washington University; the University's Tietjens Hall is named in his honor. His diaries are part of the collection of the Newberry Library in Chicago. 
Q3990060
The Wizard of Oz
MEDIA
Q207544
L. Frank Baum
PER
Q130295
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
MEDIA
Q38022
St. Louis
LOC
Q1581
Missouri
LOC
Q2212932
St. Louis Symphony
ORG
Q460110
Hugo Kaun
PER
Q2467438
Harold Bauer
PER
Q362340
Theodor Leschetizky
PER
Q17421668
Ike Morgan
PER
Q4743720
American Fairy Tales
MEDIA
Q1364808
W. W. Denslow
PER
Q3990060
the show
MEDIA
Q235065
Broadway
LOC
Q81796
J. M. Barrie
PER
Q5409778
Eunice Tietjens
PER
Q777403
Washington University
ORG
Q7154017
Paul Tietjens
PER
1877-05-22T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
May 22, 1877
DATE
1943-11-25T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
November 25, 1943
DATE
1902-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1902
DATE
1901-03-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
March 1901
DATE
1902-06-16T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
16 June 1902
DATE
1903-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
January 1903
DATE
1907-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1907
DATE
1904-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1904
DATE
1910-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1910
DATE
1914-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1914
DATE
1916-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1916
DATE
1927-12-25T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
December 25, 1927
DATE
1942-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1942
DATE
1942-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1942
DATE
+15^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
15
NUMBER
+1901^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1901
NUMBER
+1904^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1904
NUMBER
+1^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1
NUMBER
date of birth
date of death
spouse
librettist
based on
publication date
notable work
author
located in the administrative territorial entity