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 Williams (composer / pianist) Paul Williams (composer / pianist) Paul Williams is an English composer and pianist. Paul Williams (aka Terry Day) studied at the Royal College of Music before going on to read Music at Cambridge University, where he gained an M.A. While still at Jesus College, he teamed up with Roger Wornell, and under the pen names of Paul de Schroder and Lee Lenrow, they found a local rock and roll group called "The Phantoms", write songs for them, and arranged to be "discovered" by Pallette records.Their first record, "Phantom Guitar" and "Cachina" is now recognised as a classic of its genre.