The College Choir (Kántus) of the Reformed College of Debrecen has been serving the school and the local society since 1739 with its performances on school occasions, memorial events, and funerals. During the years of the First World War the young men had to face not only the difficulties caused by the war, but also the challenges of the newly formed university. The Kántus, as a student association felt the duty of keeping the memory of national heroes and religious predecessors alive, as well as their comrades who were killed in the war. The study uses the minutes of the choir, news of local nad national newspapers, and memoirs of the members involved in the events, and, in some cases, conflicts around the choir. Among the sources, the paper also relies on the collected memoirs and diaries of the 40 volunteers who defined themselves as members of the choir during their training in Budapest.