THE death earlier this month of Elgar's godson, Wulstan Atkins at the age of 98, comes poignantly in the year that marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of his father Sir Ivor Atkins, who was a major driving force in the musical life of Worcester through the first half of the 20th century.

Sir Ivor was organist and Master of the Choristers of Worcester Cathedral for more than 50 years and a close friend of Worcester's most famous son, Sir Edward Elgar for over four decades.

The composer became an amiable "uncle" figure to Wulstan, the only child of Sir Ivor and Lady Atkins and was invited by them to be his godfather.

Ivor Atkins and Edward Elgar met as young men at the Worcester Three Choirs Festival of 1890, when Atkins was assistant organist of Hereford Cathedral. Both wrote down their impressions of that first meeting.

Atkins recorded: "I knew that I completely understood his music, and that my heart and soul went with it," while Elgar described the encounter thus: "He was too nervous to speak, and so was I. But the eager excited look in his eyes told me that at least one musician had fully understood my music and had made it his own. We both knew a real friendship had begun."

It was to be a friendship based on a mutual respect for each other as musicians, and the two met almost every week for more than 40 years, until Elgar's death in 1934.

They would go to tea at each other's homes, attend weekend house parties, go out on leisurely cycling or walking excursions, and travel together to concerts by train. They also had their own amusing nicknames for each other, used in frequent letters between them - Elgar was "Reynart" and Atkins "Firapeel."

In homage to Sir Ivor in the 50th anniversary year of his death, the Elgar Birthplace Museum at Lower Broadheath has mounted a special summertime exhibition featuring the life and times of this distinguished Worcester musician. The years of friendship with Elgar are obviously a dominant element in the display.

"Elgar used to bounce musical ideas off Atkins, and vice versa. There were loads of musical connections between the two, and they worked together on several arrangements," says Elgar Birthplace Museum supervisor Christopher Bennett.

Elgar dedicated his Pomp and Circumstance March No.3 to Atkins and also compiled the libretto for Atkins' best-known work, the oratorio Hymn of Faith.

Elgar was a frequent visitor to the Atkins' family home at No. 8 College Yard in the shadow of the Cathedral and close to the North Door of the ancient building, while Atkins' would often travel to the Elgar family home which was, in turn, at Forli, Malvern Link, Craeg Lea, Malvern Wells, Plas Gwyn, Hereford and, finally, Marlbank at Rainbow Hill, Worcester.

The composer would sometimes play through initial sketches of his works to Atkins while the Worcester Cathedral Organist would discuss with Elgar his proposed programmes for Three Choirs festivals at Worcester.

Atkins was knighted in 1921, mainly in recognition of the major role he played in the revival of the Three Choirs, Europe's oldest choral festival, which had fallen silent throughout the years of the First World War.

He conducted all the Worcester Three Choirs festivals between 1899 and 1948 and was also at the rostrum for many concerts down the years by the Worcester Festival Choral Society and other choral and orchestral groups in and around the Faithful City.

He also founded the Music Library at Worcester Cathedral and was the Cathedral librarian from 1933 until 1953.

Sir Ivor's wife Katherine (Lady Atkins) was a city councillor and alderman at Worcester for several years and was elected Mayor in 1936, only the second woman in the city's history to be First Citizen. The previous year Lady Atkins had achieved the distinction of being the first woman High Sheriff in England when elected to this civic post at Worcester.

Sir Ivor and Lady Atkins' son Wulstan had for so long until his recent death been a living link with Elgar as the composer's surviving Godson, and I interviewed this remarkable man several times, twice for " Memory Lane" features.

One of his favourite tales is of being taken to his first Three Choirs at Worcester as a boy of only four. A major rehearsal was taking place in the Cathedral, but young Wulstan had to be led from the building protesting "I can't stand that dreadful noise!"

Yet, in the 94 years since that embarrassing moment, the same "dreadful noise" had been an intense and regular joy to his ears. The work under rehearsal at the 1908 festival was Elgar's choral masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius. Until he was at least 20, Wulstan was "teased unmercifully" about the 1908 incident by Elgar.

Wulstan Atkins MBE was Chairman for many years of the Elgar Foundation and then its Joint President.

Sir Ivor Atkins died in November 1953 at the age of 84, three years after retiring as Worcester Cathedral Organist. Lady Atkins died in 1954.

The exhibition in Sir Ivor's honour at the Elgar Birthplace Museum is entitled The Elgar-Atkins Friendship - 50 Years On and will continue until late September.

It is mainly a pictorial display with vintage photographs, some rare, of Elgar and Atkins, facsimiles of musical scores by the two, and an array of other fascinating archive material.

The exhibition is obviously well worth a visit as is, always, the birthplace museum itself!