Andrew Lardner
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"Thoth Song," by Peter Lang
🕑 Added 2022-03-01 14:01:03 +0000 UTCHello everyone. I'm excited to present another Peter Lang lesson this month. As some of you may know, it has been exactly 2 years since the last Peter Lang lesson on "Turnpike Terror."
Lang's first record, The Thing at the Nursery Room Window, was released in 1973 on Takoma. "Thoth Song" was released the following year, in 1974, on the split album Fahey/Lang/Kottke. "Thoth Song" stands out to me in Lang's early repertoire as a piece of music that sought to break with many of the conventions of fingerstyle guitar of the time. His use of a modified open C tuning, CGCGCD, facilitates dissonance and resolve across the top two stings in the unique middle section, yet is close enough to an open tuning that big, rich harmonies emerge throughout.
I was able to get access to enough materials that we can now rest easy knowing this classic of the early 70s fingerstyle canon will be accurately preserved and taught to others as time goes by. I hope you enjoy it. As always, all necessary learning materials are posted below and please post in the comments if any areas need further clarification.
YouTube recording: https://youtu.be/at04L2E4z6E
YouTube lesson: https://youtu.be/szbHczRVT4Q
Comments
Andrew Lardner
Thoth was an Egyptian god. The modality used in parts of the piece give it an exotic sound that likely created the connection to the title. Here’s one introduction he gave in live performance https://youtu.be/tNAj3_lrjVY?feature=shared
Gregory Greer
Hi Andrew, I was just playing Thoth Song, and my son asked me why it was called Thoth Song. I told him that I didn't know. Do you by any chance know why Peter called it Thoth Song? It's an interesting name.
Andrew Lardner
When I originally tried to transcribe this I gave up because of the middle section, just couldn't get it figured out. Thanks to recently found audio from the era and other resources I really feel like it's exactly what Peter was doing. This remains one of my favorite posts here, and I'm glad I could share it with you.
Gregory Greer
I've finished learning this song now, but it still needs more polish. I'll keep polishing it for a while, but it does require me to keep on of my guitars tuned to the modified C in order to save time in practicing. Are there any more Peter Lang tunes tuned this way besides Thoth Song, and Young Man Young Man Look At Your Shoes? Thanks for the posting Andrew. I didn't think I would ever learn this song, and now I know it.
