Sonneries de la Rose Croix

' ("Three

Sonnerie Sonnerie is French for "making sound" or " ring". The term generally applies to bell towers or bells in mechanical clocks or wristwatches (see for example grande sonnerie), but can equally be used, for example, for the sound produced by a telephon ...

s of the

Rose+Cross The Rose Cross (also called ''Rose Croix'' and Rosy Cross) is a symbol largely associated with the legendary Christian Rosenkreuz; Christian Kabbalah, Christian Kabbalist, Alchemy, alchemist, and founder of the Rosicrucianism, Rosicrucian Order. T ...

") is a piano composition by

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

, first published in 1892, while he was

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and chapel-master of the

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its ...

"", led by Sâr

Joséphin Péladan Joséphin Péladan (28 March 1858 in Lyon – 27 June 1918 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French novelist and Martinist. His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed a philosophic-occult Catholicism. He established the ...

. Other ways of transcribing the title of this work include ', ' and '. The composition has three movements, totalling about 11 minutes execution time: #' ("Air of the Order") #' ("Air of the Grand-Master", i.e. Sâr Péladan) #' ("Air of the Grand-Prior", i.e.

Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

) A composition dated 20 January 1891, having only ' (

Moderato Moderato may refer to: * ''Moderato'', an Italian musical term; see Glossary of music terminology#M * Moderato Wisintainer (1902-1986), Brazilian footballer generally known as Moderato See also * ''Moderato Cantabile ''Moderato Cantabile'' is ...

) marked on the score, is generally known as ', after its first publication in 1968. The three sections are written with no bar lines, implying a free metric structure. Each piece is written in an elegant melody/accompaniment chorale style, exhibiting an interplay of two themes in austere but cleverly designed juxtaposition, with repetition and occasional departure from the initial exposition. In 1988, Alan Gillmor of

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

, Ottawa, Ontario, published his ''Erik Satie''. Here was revealed his finding that, in all three movements, the ratios of beat counts of these complementary sections within all three pieces fell close enough to the

Golden ratio In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ( ...

as to evade mistaking for anything but design intent by the composer. Dr. Gillmor was led to explore this by research which suggested that, around the time of the composition of the Sonneries, Satie and Debussy had discussed the possibilities for using the Golden ratio in their work. Compositions by Erik Satie {{Classical-composition-stub