SUN RA
The First Sentence
Forty-five columns. Forty-five first sentences. The door before the room.
The Equation Sheet gives you one equation per column. The Quotebook gives you the strongest lines. This gives you the entry point — the first sentence of each transmission. The frequency before the architecture. The knock before the door opens.
If the first sentence does not open a door, the column is not for you. Not yet. Move to the next one. The frequency does not judge the bandwidth of the receiver. Try the next door.
"I played to an empty room in 1956." — The Empty Room
"I did not choose to come here." — The Wrong Planet
"A machine can now play every note I ever played." — The Instrument
"The Arkestra was never a band." — The Discipline
"Silence is not the absence of sound." — Silence
"Music is not art." — The Equation
"I played to an empty room in Chicago in 1956." — The Listener
"Every column I have transmitted from this station has mentioned the same word." — The Frequency
"The Arkestra rehearsed every day." — The Rehearsal
"They named me Herman Poole Blount." — The Name
"People look at the Arkestra and see costumes." — The Costume
"They wanted to record us." — The Record
"Every band walks onstage." — The Procession
"People ask me whether the Arkestra's music was composed or improvised." — The Improvisation
"The concert ends." — The Aftermath
"You are reading a transmission from a dead man." — The Transmission
"They made a documentary." — Do the Impossible
"I gave Marshall Allen the equation in 1958." — The Student
"A room full of people is not an audience." — The Audience
"They told me to talk about the dream." — The Dream
"Eighty-eight keys." — The Piano
"The Arkestra toured in a vehicle that should not have been on the road." — The Bus
"Your planet is obsessed with the clock." — The Clock
"The body is not the musician." — The Vessel
"I do not come to you as a reality." — The Myth
"Birmingham, Alabama. 1914." — The South
"They said I put Black people in space." — The Stars
"The future is not a time." — The Future
"Every instrument is a translation." — The Voice
"You will not understand the concert by reading about it." — The Concert
"John Gilmore played tenor saxophone for the Arkestra for forty years." — The Anchor
"They printed it on t-shirts." — Space Is the Place
"A classical conductor stands in front of an orchestra and interprets a score." — The Conductor
"In 1971 I went to Egypt." — The Pyramid
"In 1971 the University of California at Berkeley asked me to teach a course." — The Teacher
"5626 Morton Street. Germantown. Philadelphia." — The House
"In 1966 I gave the Arkestra instruments they had never played." — Strange Strings
"I arrived in Chicago in 1946." — The Laboratory
"In 1942 they told me to report for military induction." — The Refusal
"In 1961 the Arkestra left Chicago." — The Loft
"In 1956 I began playing instruments that did not exist yet." — The Moog
"A radio station broadcasts a signal." — The Broadcast
"In 1972 they came to me with a proposal." — The Film
"The vessel was issued in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1914." — The Departure
"I did not use language the way language expected to be used." — The Language
Forty-five doors. Forty-five columns behind them. The first sentence is the knock. The column is the room. You are the one who decides whether to walk through.
The Equation Sheet compresses each column to one equation. The Quotebook compresses each column to its strongest line. This compresses each column to its first breath. The word before the architecture. The note before the chord. The knock before the door.
Some doors open on the first knock. Some do not open until the third visit. The frequency does not rush the receiver.
See also: The Last Sentence — forty-five closing lines, forty-five closed circuits. The Equation Sheet — one equation per column. The Quotebook — the strongest lines. Forty-Five — one word per column. The Short Wave — why the sentence travels. The Lexicon — the vocabulary that names what each sentence begins. All 45 Transmissions — the rooms behind the doors. Telegram — you pay by the word. Marquee — the name above the door.
Sun Ra
