IF you are just entering the Third Age in your life, you will have no trouble remembering how the music of your formative years had a tune that lingered, the first few bars instigating a smile and a little humming, and a muttered aside about today's music does not have the same lasting qualities, and will be lost to future generations.

Then you will certainly remember Manfred Mann. There will be one of his songs that will take you back to your youth - and, of course, endless summers.

But even then, 40 years ago, there was more to the mane' than the popular music that pervaded his and our lives.

In London at that time, a package of manuscripts came up for sale. It was suggested that some of them contained music by Elgar, written in his own hand. The celebrated rock musician Mann buys the collection, curious as to what this might contain, perhaps revealing a man of a previous age with the same love of music as himself. What emerged was revelatory.

The manuscripts turned out to be 12 of the original hymn part-books from St George's Church, Worcester, dating from 1878. This is the time when Edward Elgar was still assisting his father at the church. Six of the 12 hymns appear to be in Elgar's hand. Three of these six hymns have been identified beyond doubt as original works by the young Elgar and never before heard. Praise Ye The Lord; On Ev' ry Height, Now With The Fast Departing Light and Hear Thy Children, Gentle Jesus.

From this beginning, Elgar went on to write music that is similarly evocative as our remembered youthful music. He is accused and criticised today as being a man of the past in his own time, but perhaps that is what is his enduring attraction. In today's volatile and uncertain world, we still harbour a lingering need for a form of reassurance, which represents the hopes and values that we always held dear.