Sultan Abdulaziz - La Gondole Barcarolle

Yesterday was a lazy day for The Queen Of The World and me, so I didn't post anything at all.  But in a Wikiwander last week I ran across this pretty interesting classical music piece, composed by a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.  I think that this makes the third royal composer featured here (the other two being Henry VIII of England and Frederick the Great of Prussia).

Abdulaziz ruled from 1861 to 1876, and was a big reformer.  He modernized the Ottoman navy, chartered railroads, and implemented all sorts of other improvements to make the Empire competitive with the industrial Western powers.  He was only partially successful, in part to the traditional Ottoman dynastic politics where Sultans were often overthrown.  This was his fate, and he died under mysterious circumstances.

But he had a first rate European education and was a pretty talented composer.  I quite enjoyed this piece.