One of the interesting things about watching the recent World Cup finals in South Africa has been to listen to the respective national anthems as the teams line up at the start of each match.

I’ve always disliked our own anthem, which is insipid and uninspiring - perhaps one reason why it’s sung by a few, and then with little patriotic fervour.

Contrast this with the splendid Uruguayan one - obviously in the Italianate-Verdi mode - not easy to sing - fast to get the words in - but just watch the supporters and the team really sing their hearts out!

I’ve always liked the German anthem, which seems to come somewhere in the middle. Each time I’ve heard it at South Africa, I’ve loved the way the band (recorded or live) repeats the final stanza and changes the harmony slightly on the repeat - it really gives it that little ’extra’! We could do that with the last 8 bars of our own, but I think it won’t be too many years before it won’t be ’acceptable’ to play it, in case those of non-ethnic origin in the UK might find it ’offensive’!

I just wanted to reproduce the effect of the harmony change on the final repeat.

For detailed information on the anthem - or the lyrics, if you want to sing-a-long - please follow the link: