Classical Western music became an integral part of Ottoman palace culture and education in the palace with the opening of the Dolmabahçe Palace Theater, which was the first palace theater and concert hall, during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid's father, Sultan Abdülmecid (r. 1839-1861). The young prince Abdulhamid is one of the Ottoman princes who, from an early age, studied classical Western music and piano from famous European composers employed in the palace.
After Sultan Abdulhamid ascended the throne as the thirty-fourth Ottoman sultan in 1876, as a result of the sultan's deep interest in classical Western music, the second palace theater in Ottoman history, the Yıldız Palace Theater, was opened and became the center of modern culture and classical Western music in the empire throughout the sultan's 33-year reign.
The most important evidence of the sultan's interest in autopianos is that the promotional brochure of the automatic piano in the Paris exhibition in 1889 is in the Yıldız Palace Archive, and in the memories of the then Paris Ambassador Salih Münir Pasha, an instrument introduced by the sultan at the Paris Exhibition in 1900 and that plays music automatically when attached to the piano. It is telling that he tried it in Yıldız Palace.
Documents showing that the Sultan's idea of buying an autopiano became a reality date back to 1907. In these documents, the name of Stefanaki Musurus Pasha, the London ambassador of the time, is mentioned regarding the order and transportation of the sultan's autopiano.
