On a mellow autumn morning, Eton College looks like a film set for a costume drama set in Victorian England. Mist rises from the river, dew coats the playing fields, and boys in black tailcoats make their way towards the chapel through streets reminiscent of Oxford or Cambridge.

In a small upstairs room, the chapel choir gathers to run through the Schubert anthem it is about to perform for that day’s All Souls’ Day service. Latecomers dash in, grab a cassock, then turn towards their choirmaster and sing like angels. Downstairs, the boys of the upper school file, yawning, into pews under Henry VI’s fan-vaulted ceiling for a traditional service of hymns and prayers, after which everyone disperses to classrooms and laboratories, and the second richest and definitely the poshest school in England settles down to work.

This is the school that has educated 18 prime ministers, the Polar explorer Captain Oates, the poets Gray and Shelley and, more recently, two British princes. A school whose name in most people’s minds is synonymous with wealth and privilege. Yet right now, in a primary school somewhere in the UK, is a non-rich, non-posh, but musical, nine or 10-year-old to whom, although he doesn’t yet know it, all this will soon belong.

The school is widening its search for talented young musicians by setting up a junior music scholarship, which will pay up to 100 per cent of fees for a primary school boy (or boys, depending on talent) to go to St George’s prep school, Windsor, for two or three years, as a boarder or day boy, and then on to Eton, where he will join all the other boys as a boarder. This adds to the four junior academic scholarships already offered annually to boys of outstanding academic ability (the years at prep school are needed, the school says, to bring the educational background of state school pupils into line with Eton’s requirements, as well as to offer a “breaking in” to boarding), and the four annual sixth-form scholarships brought in 14 years ago, all available only to boys in maintained schools, all means-tested and all, according to headmaster John Lewis, “designed emphatically to broaden our base”.

And if Ralph Allwood, the school’s dynamic director of music, is able to bring any influence to bear, there will be more musical opportunities for state school children in the future. “For one thing,” he says, “I’m from a grammar school background and have an almost missionary zeal to open up our resources so everyone can benefit from them. Then, of course, I want talented musicians to come here and make our choir and orchestra even better. I love working with talented young musicians. They’re always bright and lively and well motivated, and such fun to be with.”

He worries that with the decline of choir schools, fewer young singers these days find good routes to develop their talents. But how easily could a primary school boy don his stiff white collar and fit in? “I suppose people would think they would be mixing with a different class. But people here aren’t actually that different,” says Andrew Lim, a Year 11 - or D block, as it’s known - pupil who won a junior academic scholarship to Eton from a state school in Scotland and at 13 won a King’s scholarship. “You might look in the book and see someone’s a prince or a lord, but you’d never guess it if you didn’t know. It’s the people who are eccentric, if you like, who might get picked on, not the ones with scholarships.”

Also, he points out, the big leap is from primary to prep school, after which Eton is basically more of the same. He went to Summer Fields in Oxford, “which was daunting at first, but after a couple of weeks I’d settled in”. Now his day starts at 8.40am with chapel, followed by lessons through to lunch, then two-and-a-half hours for games, music or free time, followed by two more lessons. Evenings might include house events, plays or orchestra practice, “although I do have a bit of free time now and again”. But with nine GCSEs to take this year (he’s already taken four), performance-standard piano playing, and Grade 8 violin to keep him busy, it’s clear he’s not one for lounging around.

But Andrew, whose father is a hospital consultant in Cambridge, is hardly from the other side of the tracks. Wouldn’t it be more difficult for a boy from a more modest background? “I can honestly say that you wouldn’t know who here was rich or poor,” says Joe Spence, master-in-college, the housemaster for the house in which the 70 King’s scholars live, pointing out that something like one boy in five at the school has some help with fees. “In nine years I can think of only four cases of snobbery where I’ve had to speak to someone about something silly that’s been said. And we’ve had many, many boys from non-professional backgrounds who wouldn’t have come here without scholarships. Life here is very down to earth and normal once you get over the funny clothes.”

Parents with boys at Eton confirm that it is less snobbish than some might think, and say there is little bullying, and the pastoral care is good. They also point to a changed entry system that emphasises academic ability above background. In the past, boys applied to join individual houses, guided by prep school and family connections, but this has been phased out in favour of a more centralised system. The aptitude test, taken by would-be Etonians at 11 - as well as, passing to Eton’s standards, the common entrance exam which all boys at prep school have to take at 13 - has also just been updated by Carol Fitz-Gibbon, professor of education at Durham University. And new head Tony Little, who will move to the school next September from his current job as head of Oakham school, in Rutland, is known as an innovator who has championed co-education and introduced the international baccalaureate at Oakham.

But future parents will see “far more continuity than change”, says John Lewis firmly. After all, Tony Little is an old Etonian himself. What is certain is that the emphasis on excellence will not waver, and that this creates a powerfully competitive culture that the less robust could find daunting. While the school looks for no particular traits in scholarship boys, assessments and interviews are carried out carefully, according to John Lewis, “to be sure we are doing a sensible thing by offering them a place”.

Joe Spence, whose own children went to a local primary school, says any boy achieving very well at primary school and considered bright by his teachers could consider pursuing an academic scholarship, while Ralph Allwood says that, in considering candidates for the junior music scholarship, he would expect boys to be up to about grade 3 or 4 in any instrument they play.

A different question is whether parents of talented boys would want to consider Eton for their sons. Because, although the school is undoubtedly a broader church than most people think, it is still a world that seems weird to outside eyes. Lunch with the scholars, in a medieval hall, with Latin graces bracketing the meal, is like dining in a small Oxbridge college. Then there’s the jargon, thick enough on the ground for someone to have written it up in an Eton-English dictionary (see box below), and the inevitable, often unconscious demonstrations of wealth and social placement. One sixth-former says he doesn’t want to take a gap year before going to Oxford for fear he’ll fall prey to the social life of London, while another, studying music technology in front of a bank of sophisticated equipment, says he’ll probably carry on with it after he leaves school, “because I’ve got this stuff in my room at home”.

At school - unusually for a boarding school in England - all boys have their own study-bedrooms, which has led to some complaints of new boys feeling isolated. Other boys feel the pressure of constant academic rankings. And when the time comes to leave, being an Old Etonian does not always open doors, and can even be a disadvantage. “If the word Eton comes up on a CV it sends a shudder down the spine of anyone who has to select bright boys and girls,” said Sir Roger Gibbs, ex-chairman of the Wellcome Trust, last year.

On the other hand, standards and facilities are outstanding, teachers are down to earth, and relationships between them and their pupils seem mainly respectful and easy. The school is as big as a large comprehensive, allowing most boys to find their niche. It went up six places to 13 in this year’s A-level rankings, reversing a few recent years of decline. Eton is also keen to emphasise the links it maintains with the wider educational world. It hosts and subsidises summer schools designed to encourage state school pupils to raise their aspirations and aim for university, and fully supports a similar programme for children from the London borough of Brent. It also helps the neighbouring education action zone of Slough with music workshops, the teaching of music technology, and the development of singing. “Eton wants to do educational good in the world,” says John Lewis.

As such, it is in line with other high-profile independent schools, many of which run variations of such programmes, as well as offering scholarship opportunities. And while scholarships that specifically target state school children remain thin on the ground, many schools are looking at ways to broaden their intake. One of the most recent to announce changes is Ampleforth College, the Yorkshire Catholic school, which is boosting its scholarship funds by 40 per cent, as well as offering a handful of new scholarships for all-round ability.

While the culture of Eton might be a challenge to newcomers, it is difficult to see how any keen young musician could turn down the offer of its phenomenal resources. The school has seven full-time music teachers, five music department administrators, and 55 visiting instrument teachers. It has a stunning new music wing housing practice rooms, rehearsal rooms, a concert hall and recording studio, and gives 950 individual singing or instrumental lessons a week. There are two orchestras, a chamber orchestra, three choirs and a choral society, two concert bands, and a shifting array of rock and jazz bands. There are 60 pianos (“not including privately owned ones”, says Ralph Allwood) and six pipe organs. Music technology is also thriving, backed by almost pound;120,000-worth of equipment, and two full-time teachers.

It also has Ralph Allwood, whose extensive CV runs from writing jingles for commercials to directing the Rodolfus Choir and playing an international role in promoting choral music, and whose infectious enthusiasm has clearly permeated the whole school during his 16 years as head of department - to the point where music is almost as popular as sport. “I don’t think there is a single master here who doesn’t fully support the music and think it’s important and worth all the time the boys give to it,” he says cheerfully.

“I’ve been very happy here. I feel challenged and there’s friendly competition,” says Andrew Lim. “It isn’t too daunting. Being at Eton tends to makes you confident, and I suppose getting a scholarship propels you along. I’d say to anyone who was interested, ‘just go for it’.”

Details of scholarships from the registrar, Eton College, Windsor, Berks SL4 6BD. To apply for junior scholarships, boys must have attended state schools in the UK for three years, and be over 10 and under 11 on September 1 of the calendar year before the examination, held at Eton in January. Scholarships cover all or part of the fees at prep school and Eton according to parental means. Fourteen King’s scholarships, eight music scholarships, and other bursaries and awards are made at 13, and open to all every year

FACTS AND FACILITIES

* The school was founded by Henry VI in 1440 for 70 scholars, and there are still 70 King’s scholars.

* Eton’s endowment at the end of 2000 was pound;186 million, second highest in the country after Christ’s Hospital, West Sussex.

* It has 1,290 boys and 155 teachers, 11 of them female. There are also matrons (dames) in all houses. Between 70 and 80 of the boys go to Oxford or Cambridge each year. All go to university.

* Fees are pound;17,604 a year.

* The new head’s salary package is thought to be pound;100,000-plus, along with a Tudor residence. All staff live in Eton houses.

* Facilities include a 400-seat theatre with orchestra pit and revolving stage; two other permanent theatre spaces; 23 science labs; studios equipped for painting, drawing, screen-printing, etching, photography, pottery and sculpture; a library with “an outstanding collection of rare books and manuscripts”; more than 20 cricket pitches; two astroturf pitches; indoor and outdoor pools; and Casa Guidi, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s house in Tuscany, used as a study centre for school parties.

* There are 20 school rugby teams, 20 football teams and more than 20 cricket teams.

* Eton has its own jargon. For example, schools (lessons); reading schools (free periods); beaks (teachers); divs (sets or forms); trials (internal exams); opidans (non-scholars); chambers (morning break); halves (terms).

ETONIANS IN MUSIC

Thomas Arne (1710-1778), composer of the British national anthem and “Rule Britannia”; Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson Berners, (1883-1950), eccentric aristocratic composer; George Butterworth (1885-1916), promising composer of songs and orchestral music, who was killed in the First World War; Michael Chance (b1955 ), one of the world’s best-known counter tenors; Humphrey Lyttleton (b1921), jazz trumpeter and radio personality; Sir Hubert Parry, (1848-1918), composer of “Jerusalem” and the Coronation anthem “I was Glad”; Roger Quilter (1877-1963), English composer mainly of songs; Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) (1894-1930), journalist and composer