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The third lecture of the cycle “The Roerichs’ Creative  Heritage as Basis for New Cosmic Understanding of the World”  of  the Unified Scientific Centre for Problems of Cosmic Mentality of the International Centre of the Roerichs (Moscow, Russia) was held in  the Lecture Hall of the Russian National  Public Library (St.Petersburg, Russia) on February, 12, 2012.

The meeting was dedicated to 133 birth anniversary of Helena Roerich, a philosopher and thinker; her birthday is annually celebrated on February, 12. The theme was: “Musical Art in Life and Creative Work of Helena Roerich”. The lecture was presented by E.A.Tomsha, the chairman of the St.Petersburg Branch of the International Centre of the Roerichs, a member of the Russian Union of Concert Workers.

Stroganova  Helena Fyodorovna, head of lectures-and-concerts events department of the Russian National Library, started the meeting. She stressed that the cycle is a joint project of the RNL and the ICR, and it is very popular with the RNL readers.

E.A.Tomsha , the lecturer, spoke about the Helena Roerich biography. On February, 12, 1879, in St.Petersburg there was born Helena Ivanovna Roerich (born Shaposhnikova). The family cultural and spiritual traditions were centuries-old:  Helena belonged to the ancient family of Golenischev-Kutuzov; Kutuzov, Mikhail Illarionovich, a great Russian general and her great-great grandfather, and Musorgskiy, Modest Petrovich, a magnificent Russian composer and her great-great uncle, were among the most famous representatives of the family.

Rich cultural traditions of the family helped the child’s creative capabilities to develop, and Helena’s  congenital musical talent let her study music and beautiful art of playing the piano. Her mastery in studying music and in playing the piano was so great that all her relatives and music teachers expected her to be the greatest musician and pianist.  After graduating the gymnasium with a gold medal, aged 16, Helena Roerich entered the private St.Petersburg Music School; on graduating the one she was expected to become a pianist and she was going to enter the St.Petersburg Conservatory.

By the age of 20 Helena Roerich had got excellent education, she was brilliant not only in playing the piano, but in life as well, stressed the lecturer.  “Full of grace, elegance, womanhood and a kind of inner charm of her whole appearance, she unintentionally attracted everyone’s attention”, noted her contemporaries .  Those who knew Helena Shaposhnikova in her youth said that she had decided to marry a man of high artistic talent and to serve him and to encourage him to achieve the highest goals.

Nicholas Roerich, by the time already a famous painter of Petersburg, became the man of her dreams. His sensational painting  “Messenger. Tribe Has Risen against Tribe”  was bought by P.M.Tretyakov, a well-known collector of Russian art; and Lev Tolstoy highly estimated it. Nicholas Roerich gave Helena Ivanovna support and understanding of her aspirations and ideals in music, as N.Roerich loved music and knew it very well.

Love to music came through their whole life. When Nicholas Roerich was going to start the Central-Asian Expedition to cross India, Tibet, China, Mongolia and Altai, he “without remorse threw away any waste kg of weight”, though “took a portable gramophone with  records”. Despite being very busy in India, in the Kulu Valley Helena Roerich gave some time for music. In the evenings, after work the whole family stayed together. They shared their thoughts and observations; discussed results of the research held in the “Urusvati” Institute of the Himalayan Research and listened to music.

Interest to music, inner need and aspiration to express the most beautiful as well as by means of music were part of Helena Roerich’s nature. Later this inner need transformed into understanding of  music not only as a means for harmonization of feelings and formation of  integral  perception of the Earth beauty, but also as a communicating link in perception of cosmic beauty with its spheres of different reality.

Cooperation with reality of higher worlds led Helena Roerich to co-authorship with the Great Teachers of the East, the Great Mahatmas, which was depicted in the philosophy of cosmic reality, the Living Ethics Teaching.

E.A.Tomsha explained some moments of the Teaching and told the public that the Living Ethics stressed importance of music and of musical art in life. Music and art of music playing, which has synthesis in itself, influence not only intellectual development, but help to widen consciousness; they form process of thinking in categories, “which go out of three-dimensional space logic”. Music and art of music playing direct man’s consciousness to the spheres of many-dimensional manifold of Being. Such conceptions as rhythm, harmony, consonance and others, which make up musical knowledge, are examined in a different sense.  For example, “Assimilation of rhythm is a step toward the distant worlds. No one can perceive subtle vibrations if he has not assimilated rhythm and does not understand the significance of harmony.” 

When the mentioned terms content is revealed in their different, cosmic meaning, they will become a connecting link in studying by science other states of matter, as well as in understanding of meaningful questions of cosmic laws, cosmic evolution and in participation of a man in “grand energy and information exchange”  with all energy  structures of the universe. 

E.A.Tomsha used musical fragments of the music opuses which Helena Roerich liked listening to during her life. Her favourite composers were I.S.Bach, L.V.Beethoven, R.Vagner, M.P.Musorgskiy, S.V.Rahmaninov, A.N.Skryabin. The music that sounded during the lecture created harmonic atmosphere. E.A.Tomsha’s lecture showed importance of music and musical art in modern epoch of formation of cosmic world-outlook where a man has an important role.

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