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.
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.
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