Larry Gordon (musician)

In the early 1970s, Gordon formed the Word of Mouth choral group. Between 1973 and 1976, the group refined their focus, increasing their performance activity and continuing to promote Sacred Harp music, and published a collection called the "Early American Songbook" (1975) in standard, non-shaped notation.[16]

The ensemble toured the southern United States and released an album, Rivers of Delight: American Folk Hymns from the Sacred Harp Tradition, in 1978.[17]

Word of Mouth's entrée into the world of southern Sacred Harp singing was not entirely without controversy. In her 2017 dissertation on Sacred Harp music as performed outside of the Southern American milieu, Ellen Lueck writes:

Larry Gordon’s willingness to perform Sacred Harp for formal audiences has not gone without criticism from those who firmly believe that the repertoire should be enjoyed only within an open community context, or from those who adhere to the trope of “it’s just not done” in the American South. [Ethnomusicologist] Kiri Miller devotes an entire subsection of her book to a critique of the Word of Mouth Chorus and their 1979 album Rivers of Delight where she essentially claims a hijacking of The Sacred Harp for the purposes of a personal project.[18]

Nevertheless, Lueck writes, "it is still important to consider the positive impact that the professional presentations of the Word of Mouth Chorus had on Sacred Harp singing in New England, and subsequently across the Atlantic." In fact, had Gordon and Word of Mouth not engaged in the musical/cultural exchange they did, "many of the people who were first attracted to Sacred Harp singing through the Word of Mouth Chorus’ [album] Rivers of Delight may never have found a pathway to the inclusive and thriving singing network that is present today."[19]

The Onion River Chorus was founded around 1976–1978 by Gordon and the late Brian Webb,[20] with Gordon managing programming, and Webb serving as the primary conductor for the choir's first ten years.[21] The Onion River Chorus is a non-auditioned community chorus, and has historically made use of a wide-ranging and eclectic repertoire, including pieces by Baroque composers such as Jan Dismas Zelenka and Marc-Antoine Charpentier,[22] as well as Hieronymus Praetorius,[23] and contemporary works by Vermont composer Don Jamison (among others).[24][25]

Village Harmony, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is an umbrella organization comprising a diverse range of choral singing activities, including Northern Harmony, a semi-professional touring ensemble with a shifting membership. Gordon founded Village Harmony in 1989, and its first summer camp was held the following year. Each year since 1990, Village Harmony organizes multiple sessions of summer camps (both touring and residential sessions) for teenagers, largely in northern New England and in Oregon. Since 1994, Village Harmony has also organized international sessions for adults.[26] Drawing on Gordon's extensive and eclectic musical expertise, as well as that of the organization's co-director Patty Cuyler (who joined in 1994), Village Harmony has taught and performed music from a diverse range of musical regions and traditions, most notably Bulgaria, Macedonia, Georgia, South Africa, Appalachia, Corsica, and more.[27] Village Harmony has been described as "the leader in engaging young people in traditional [folk, vernacular, and art] music".[28]

Village Harmony was the subject of a chapter in the book A Different Voice, A Different Song: Reclaiming Community through the Natural Voice and World Song (Bithell, 2014), which "explores the history and significance of the natural voice movement and its culture of open-access community choirs, weekend workshops, and summer camps"; Gordon was mentioned in his capacity as a director and an important emotional figure for many teenagers involved in Village Harmony:

Often, some of the participants will already know one another: they may sing in the same choir or have attended the same workshops at home, or they may have met on previous overseas tours. Many of the younger singers grew up with Village Harmony’s youth camps and feel very much a part of the Village Harmony family, often viewing Patty [Cuyler] and Larry [Gordon] as surrogate parent figures.[29]

Gordon was a well-known teacher and popularizer of Sacred Harp music, both traditional and contemporary. However, Gordon wrote only one song in the Sacred Harp tradition, a setting of Dylan Thomas' celebrated poem Do not go gentle into that good night.[30]

The following is not an exhaustive list.

• Honor to the hills, 1988
• Emerald stream : music from the shape note tradition, old & new, 1992
• Northern harmony, 1992
• Heavenly meeting : European tour, fall 1994, 1994
• Endless light : spiritual songs by a new generation, 1997
• USA tour 1999, 1999
• Crossing boundaries : USA tour 2000, 2000
• Where everything is music : USA tour 2002, 2002

• The Word of Mouth early American songbook, ca. 1976
• Emerald stream : twenty-one original shape-note compositions, 1992
• Northern harmony : plain tunes, fuging tunes and anthems from the early and contemporary New England singing traditions, 2012
• The best of Village Harmony: a 25th anniversary collection: traditional & composed polyphonic songs from America, the Balkans, Caucasus Georgia, Ukraine, Corsica & More, 2014