Bavarian Rhapsody

Now that Chelsea have the Premiership title in the bag, the Champions League and UEFA finalists have been decided and my own team Sheffield Wednesday (which I generally keep quiet about) have managed to avoid the drop, the world will soon be turning its attention to a summer feast of football in Germany. Eamonn over at "Rainy Day" is counting the days with fervent anticipation.
Although their choice of pundits somritmes leaves a lot to be desired, the BBC usually put on a good show. One of the most impressive aspects of their World Cup coverage is the rousing theme tune and the spectacular opening titles which normally have some connection with the host country and manage to set the tone for the tournament.
My earliest memeory of the World Cup was in 1982, when the theme tune was from the Lloyd-Webber musical Cats, which although having little to do with either Spain or football was certainly uplifting. For Mexico in 1986, it was a fast and furious compsition called Aztec Lightning by (I believe) an in-house composer.
Then from 1990 to 1998, it was the golden age of World Cup theme tunes when they scored the hat-trick and got it absolutely spot-on. Puccini's Nessun Dorma sung by Pavarotti set the Italian summer on fire and in doing so captured the public imagination by bringing classical music into popular culture by doing rather well in the pop charts. Rogers and Hammerstein's "I want to be in Amercia " from the musical Westside Story successfully set the scene in 1994 for a tournament held in a country where the word "football" generally conjures up images of heavily-built men in helmets and padding literally running into each other, rather then the subtleties of the so-called "Beautiful Game". France's first ever win on home soil was accompanied by the graceful strains of Fauré's Pavane, which in my opinion worked rathr well.
I can't say the same about the tune for the 2002 competiton which I have no memory of and was not impressed by. The titles were inspired by images from the Japanese Manga cartoons and while remaining true to the spirit of one of the host nations, didn't do a lot for me.

So what can we expect in 2006? A rousing piece from Beethoven or Wagner? A futuristic keyboards and synthesizers number in the style of Teutonic techno-popmeisters Kraftwerk juxtaposed with images of the Black Forest, the Brandenburg Gate and the Rhinelands? As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, I wait with baited breath.