Sunday, November 8, 2009

Great Music, Great Spaces, Great Images: Boston Avenue Methodist


Susan and I attended a nice program tonight at the Boston Avenue Methodist Church. This the first of 3 events titled Great Music, Great Spaces, Great Images. The second will be at the Performing Arts Center this Thursday evening, the Third next Sunday at the newly restored Mayo Hotel.


This church is a Art Deco treasure. The sanctuary is in the round and the exterior is quite unique. I did a post on it back in June, see HERE. In looking at my previous post I can see that I did not do justice to this beautiful church and resolve to do another better one.


Shari Goodwin presented a commentary on the unusual architecture of the church. Then a musical program by members of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. First an Octet for Wind Instruments by Igor Stravinsky. Next was something quite unusual that I found very interesting. It was a reading of a group of poems titled Facade by Edith Sitwell and set to music by composer William Walton. The readers were Nan Buhlinger and Dan Call.


The dome of the sanctuary is made up of the same geometric patterns which appear elsewhere in the building, both inside and out. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the architecture of the church HERE.


The skylight at the center of the dome is back lit with artificial light. The effect is quite beautiful.

2 comments:

Yogi♪♪♪ said... [Reply to comment]

We were members of the church way back when we first moved to Tulsa. It is a lovely building (and a great church.)

Anonymous said... [Reply to comment]

I love the dome!