Britain or at least, the Daily Telegraph is convulsed by the news that Elgar's unfinished Third Symphony is to be completed against the composer's wishes. All that remains of the Symphony is 30 bars, and 141 pages of "jumbled" notes. Composer Anthony Payne will have his work cut out for him to make a symphony of it.

Elgar asked from his sick bed for the piece to be destroyed because "no one would understand" what his intentions were. Payne says, however, that every new note "will be pure Elgar", which strikes this humble punter as something of a contradiction. Elgar's family has defended its decision, saying that by the year 2004 the piece will be out of copyright and could be "finished" by anyone, and that all the royalties would go towards a scholarship for composers. These are essentially financial, not artistic issues, however, and are not where the debate should focus.