A Musical Delight to Celebrate The Wealth of Nations

More than 80 people gathered at the historic Old Kirk in Kirkcaldy for a musical afternoon celebrating the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

Held on Sunday 27 September, The Wealth We Share brought together the talented Haver Quartet and Kirkcaldy Music Society for a fascinating journey through the music of Adam Smith’s era, jointly organised by the Adam Smith Global Foundation and Kirkcaldy Music Society, with support from Fife Council.

The setting was particularly meaningful. Adam Smith was baptised at the Old Kirk, and 250 years later, the church welcomed music from the world in which he lived and worked.

Fife and all the Lands

The varied programme featured string quartets by Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie, and French composer Pierre Vachon, alongside arrangements of Scottish songs originally set by Joseph Haydn. These included melodies collected by George Thomson of Edinburgh, who helped bring Scottish music to audiences across Europe. George Thomson of Edinburgh, a member of the St Cecilia orchestra, commissioned Haydn to arrange Scots airs for a European public. The Quartet played four of those settings, rearranged for strings: Fife and all the Lands, This is no mine ain house, My ain kind deary and I had a Horse. What began as local melody left home through publication, in the same decades that Smith was describing how exchange carries goods and ideas beyond their place of origin.

Some pieves were based on Robert Burns for example ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ arranged by

cellist Peter Phelan. Burns was a contemporary of Smith towards the end if Smith's life and would meet in Edinburgh. The programme even ventured beyond the classical repertoire, featuring a minimalist interpretation of American folk songs and hymns from 1776 by John Cage.

The Haver Quartet - Charlotte Perkins, Brianna Berman, Sagnick Mukherjee and Peter Phelan - delighted the audience with their versatility, combining historical pieces with contemporary influences and their own musical creativity, including a tune written by the Clyde near Glasgow University, where Smith studied and later lectured.

They made no claim that every piece was a document of 1776. The argument of the afternoon was narrower, and stronger. Erskine at St Cecilia’s while Smith was at work in Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy; Thomson sending Scots songs to Haydn; Burns already developing into adulthood. The book is 250 years old and the music of the years that produced it is still in the room where its author was baptised.

It was an entertaining celebration of the Scottish Enlightenment, reminding us that the wealth of an era is found not only in books and ideas, but also in its music, culture and the connections shared between people.

As the final event in this year’s Adam Smith celebrations, the concert offered a fitting tribute to the enduring legacy of The Wealth of Nations and the man whose story remains deeply connected to Kirkcaldy.

The anniversary celebrations continue at the Adam Smith Heritage Centre, 1 Adam Smith Close, with guided tours and exhibitions exploring the life, ideas and legacy of Adam Smith.