"This spirit is passed on"
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Cornelius Trantow on the art of choral conducting and the voice as a mediator of the soul
May 12, 2018, is a date that Prof. Cornelius Trantow and the Chamber Choir of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, which he directs, are likely to remember for a very long time. A week earlier, some 5,000 singers from 116 choirs had gathered in Freiburg im Breisgau to compete in Germany’s largest competition for amateur choirs, organized every four years by the German Music Council. When the HfMT Chamber Choir learned the results of the competition shortly before noon on May 12, the enthusiasm of the Hamburg singers was hard to top: With the highest score awarded in the competition, the HfMT Chamber Choir was named the winner in the “Mixed Choirs” category.
“In this competition, we all rose to the occasion and had both the desire and the determination to push our own boundaries,” said Cornelius Trantow, who has served as a professor of choral conducting at the HfMT since 1999. With the chamber choir—founded in the winter semester of 2013 by HfMT students—he participated last year in the state choral competition “Choralle” in Hamburg with outstanding success, thereby securing a spot in the 2018 German Choral Competition in Freiburg. “Winning first prize in such a prestigious competition is a great feeling. But what’s even more important is that this success has had a lasting impact—we’ve improved both vocally and in terms of expression. And I’m convinced that this higher level, this new spirit, will also be passed on to future members of our choir, much like a perpetual motion machine. In four years, none of the current students will still be part of the university choir in Freiburg.”
The choir members qualified for the choir through an audition. In addition to providing the opportunity to perform choral music at a high level, the choir also serves as a training ensemble for students who are still working to acquire the necessary skills. Thus, intensive work is done on vocal training, stylistics, and the techniques of ensemble singing. In addition, the choir offers students majoring in choral conducting the opportunity to lead rehearsals themselves and to conduct portions of concerts.
When asked what distinguishes conducting an orchestra from conducting a choir, Cornelius Trantow draws on his many years of experience as a choir director and performer with numerous musical ensembles. “A conductor can produce a whole range of possible timbres due to the variety of orchestral instruments. I, on the other hand, have homogeneity and a focus on the text as my means of expression. The human voice, after all, has a dual function: on the one hand, like any instrument, it produces sound; at the same time, it is also a conduit for the soul—in both positive and negative ways. If someone is feeling down, you can hear it—it can’t be masked by routine or anything else.”
When it comes to selecting the repertoire, the chamber choir operates quite democratically. “Anyone who’s interested can make suggestions. In addition, we have a choir council made up of about half a dozen students who handle both organizational matters and artistic issues.”
The selection of pieces includes a cappella works from all eras. When asked about his personal “favorite era” in choral literature, Cornelius Trantow doesn’t have to think twice. “It’s definitely contemporary music. It often has a reputation for being too complex or avant-garde—music for musicians, not for the audience. I see it differently. When we were the last choir to perform in Freiburg with a contemporary and largely unknown piece by the Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, it was truly celebrated by the other choirs, the jury, and the audience. The jury chair even asked me to send him the sheet music.”
Whether Baroque, Romantic, Classical, or contemporary: anyone who wants to experience the HfMT Chamber Choir live doesn’t have to wait four years. “Next February, at the end of the semester, we’ll be performing the St. John Passion together with the university orchestra. This collaboration takes place every three semesters, and I’m really looking forward to it.”