Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
Autograph musical quotation signed ('Bedř. Smetana'), 'Motiv Raracha ze zpěvohry: Čertova stěna' (Rarach's motifs in the Singspiel The Devil's Wall), Jabkenice, 10 April 1882
The devil's motifs from Smetana's last completed opera. Autograph music by Smetana is rare at auction: only two other manuscripts have appeared at auction in the last 30 years.

In Czech. 8 bars on one system of two or three staves, on an album leaf, 117 x 197mm.

Provenance:
(1) Sotheby's, 7 December 2015, lot 185.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5564.

The quotation comprises the three themes associated with the evil spirit Rarach, first separately (labelled a, b and c) and then combined, with the note 'Všechny 3 motivy' (All three motifs), with a second enharmonic transcription of the bass.

Čertova stěna (The Devil's Wall) was Smetana's third opera written with the librettist Eliška Krásnohorská, based on the Czech legend of the devil constructing a sheer rockface on the Vltava river to flood a monastery. The present manuscript, which is a thematic analysis rather than a direct quotation, dates from a few weeks before the completion of the work. It was first performed on 29 October 1882, at the New Czech Theatre in Prague.