Elijah (oratorio) Austrian bass Joseph Staudigl. Mendelssohn had discussed an oratorio based on Elijah in the late 1830s with his friend Karl Klingemann, who had provided him with the libretto for his comic operetta "Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde", which resulted in a partial text that Klingemann was unable to finish. Mendelssohn then turned to , the librettist for his earlier oratorio "St. Paul", who quickly abandoned Klingemann's work and produced his own text that combined the story of Elijah as told in the Book of Kings with psalms. In 1845, the Birmingham Festival commissioned an oratorio from Mendelssohn, who worked with
Paul Smith (composer) series of the late 1940s and early 1950s. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score with Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for "Pinocchio", which was his first and only Oscar win. Smith died on January 25, 1985 in Glendale, California, from Alzheimer's Disease at age 78. In 1994, he was posthumously honored as a Disney Legend. Paul Smith (composer) Paul J. Smith (October 30, 1906 – January 25, 1985) was an American music composer best known for his work at Disney. Smith was born in Calumet, Michigan on October 30, 1906. Upon graduating high school, he studied music