"Choral singers are by definition members of a team," he wrote in an email. "Making, hearing and succumbing to the interplay of human voices is the essence of choral singing. Without that, it's hard to be inspired to breath[e], listen, think and perform in unison with other singers."
That interplay of voices presents new challenges when the singers are so far apart. Buettner has had to rethink his repertoire. "Musically, our projects have to be much shorter," he notes. And because sight lines are problematic in a 700-seat chapel, the music that has worked is rhythmic. That includes "Non Nobis, Domine" by Rosephanye Powell, a 2002 piece that's standard with academic choirs; and the folk-sounding "Meet Me Here" by Craig Hella Johnson, from 2016. The latter, says Buettner, is "a little slower but had a continual pulse that we could all feel across a distance."