Paul Tietjens (/ˈtɪtʃənz/; May 22, 1877 – November 25, 1943) was an American composer of the early twentieth century.
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.
The show went through many script revisions and changes; Tietjens's score was supplemented with music composed by A. Baldwin Sloane and others.
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.
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.
He was arrested in London and only released when Frederick W. Well, former Berlin correspondent for the New York Times and the Daily Mail, intervened.
[11] 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 in 1943.