SOMEHOW, I do not think Sir Edward Elgar would have been unduly perturbed at recent changes to the lyric of Land of Hope and Glory (We Say, October 13).

I seem to remember being told by my old choirmaster, the late Edgar F Day, who was a close friend of Elgar, that the great composer was not at all pleased when someone put words to his Pomp and Circumstance March Number One.

It was only after many people had prevailed upon him, including royalty, that he reluctantly agreed to its adoption as a popular song. "Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set" hardly seems appropriate to the present.

I remember a recent performance in USA by the Florida Concert Orchestra and Presbytery Choir under the direction of my son, Phil, who was himself an organ scholar of Edgar Day from whom he heard many anecdotes of Elgar. On this occasion I was co-opted into the choir.

At the appropriate moment the audience joined enthusiastically in singing, Land of Hope and Glory waving The Stars and Stripes.

JOHN G HINTON,

Worcester.