Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1876 — What it is to be Pianist to a Sultan. [ARTICLE]

What it is to be Pianist to a Sultan.

La Liberte announces among its musical items the arrival in Paris of one Donizetti, professor of piano music to the late Sultan Abdul Aziz, through whose death the musician has lost his situation. Donizetti, who, it appears, is a nephew of the author of “ Favorita,” describes his experience thus: “You are sumnMßad at eight o’clock in the morning to play for three hours. You must be in full, uniform ; you wait for seven hours in an el</ gant gallery where you are forbidden io Sit down. FrOm time to. time* they come to tell you what is going on a His Majesty’s apartments. * His highness is going to tp’i&B.’ The moment you hear this you ihuSt 1 prostrate yourself. 1 His highness is going to the hath.’ Again you prostrate yourself. ‘ His highness is dressing.’ You prostrate yourself lower than ever. And So the intelligence continues, until you are wearied beyond endurance, and the Sultan is finally ready. Then an immense grand piano is brought in without its legs, for the floor of the gallery is a precious mosaic of the Jarest woods, ana must not bear the weight of a piano even. The immense instrument is placed on the backs of five wretched Turks suitably placed on their hands and knees. ‘ But,’ say you, ‘ I cannot play on a five Turk piano.’ Supposing you complain tliat the instrunwM® not level, they eare fully place a cuthibp* finder .the knees of the smallest you >to prpceed, Without SuspectingWe sentifiient of humanity that has occasioned the delay. The Sultan appears, and after all manner of prostrations, you ask for a chair. There is none; no one ever sits in the presence of the Sultan. You protest you cannot play unless you sit, ana tho Sultan filially orders a chair'tone produced: You play .for an hour or so, and, after the Sultaifhas watched the effect on his followers until he is weary, he rudely thrusts you aside and takes your place. The eunuchs and the rest awake and applaud his discords with rapturous exclamations, and after he has amused himself thus until he is satisfied of the superiority of his music Over yours, you are dismissed. And this it is to be a pianist'to a Sultan.” Twb new Chicago City Directory, Just published, contains 153,335 names, which, according to the usual method of estimating population, would give Chicago a ppp. ulation of 536,678, an increase Over fest year of 25,172. •