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http://www.habitsofwaste.wwu.edu/issues/2/iss2art5d.shtml
Which brings us to Nicos style, both her vocal and later compositional style. As Ive suggested, there are elements of Nicos personality that find expression in her style. There is a reserve and mystery to her music, which one suspects is due partially to her inarticulateness. In writing the list below, I dont mean to suggest that her music is always the same; there is, in fact, quite a lot of variety in her music. But it is not difficult to find examples of the following:
Melismatic vocal style. These days, the word "melismatic" is applied rather loosely to describe the singing of several notes for a single syllable of text (its descriptive application to medieval music rather more precisely limits the term to quite long passages of notes for single syllables). Nicos use of melismas is not particularly ornate; you can hear much more involved melismatic passages in any song by Christina Aguilera. When I first heard Nicos solo music, the term that came to mind was "tastefully melismatic." She also tends to articulate each note in a melismatic passage by a little force of breath, which gives it a dramatic quality and not a fluid one, as is often the case with other uses of the technique.
The use of the harmonium. Whoever suggested to Nico that she accompany herself on the harmonium (and it may have been her own idea) was a genius. The timbre of the instrument perfectly matches her voice and reinforces the serious and dramatic qualities that are key to her musical effectiveness. In addition, the harmonium provided a useful tool to aid her composition and imposed itself, as it were, on her compositional style by emphasizing drones and repetitive figures, as well as her prominent use of parallel motion in her melodies.
Repetition. Most of Nicos songs are rather simple in design, relying very heavily on repeated figures on her harmonium. Sections of songs are repeated frequently as well (as is the case with pop music) and most dramatically, she often repeats lines of lyrics. Occasionally, she will repeat the same line as a pair, one pair followed by another, and so on.
She often accompanies her vocal lines on the harmonium in parallel motion at the interval of a perfect fourth or fifth. This is one of the qualities (along with her melismatic style) that lead people to think of her music as sounding "medieval."
Her voice is famous for being deep, but when she reaches into her upper register, the effect is quite piercing and emotional.
Rhythmically, Nico prefers a flowing, adaptable rhythm. Although she could be quite effective in following a precise rhythmic track, a loose, highly soloistic rhythm is what she generally employed.
She tends to have the melody parts on the harmonium in her left hand, while having a simple repetitive figure in her right hand, contrary to normal practice. This reportedly came from a suggestion by Ornette Coleman(!), according to Richard Witts. Wherever it comes from, the lower-register harmonium melody perfectly matches her lower-register voice for a unique effect.
It is these elements that give Nicos recordings their unique sound. As with all pop albums, however, the role of producer is key. Most of Nicos albums were produced by John Cale, and he had a profound influence on them. James Young, in his memoir of playing and touring with Nico, sheds light on Cales method of producing a Nico album (Richard Witts makes clear that this is a method employed in all of Cales work with her). He would record Nico separately, with her harmonium, before other musicians were involved. He would then record other tracks on top of this base, with Nico generally coming back to re-record vocals once the arrangements were in place. This is significant, because it would often mean that Nicos own style would be obscured (most prominently on The Marble Index) although when this process worked, it worked very well. Cale is, for the most part, a savvy producer with good musical instincts. But any producer finds it difficult to not, well, produce, and it is sometimes best to do as little as possible. In fact, Cales role on The Marble Index was as arranger, but he is generally acknowledged as the actual producer.
Id like to try to illustrate Nicos style by looking at her work on the three albums which follow Chelsea Girl, and which form the core of her work, Marble Index, Desertshore, and The End. Marble Index represents the first album featuring music composed by Nico (with the slight exception of the one cut on Chelsea Girl). In fact, of the 26 cuts on the three albums (this number includes two previously unreleased tracks now contained on the CD version of Marble Index) only two are not penned by Nico, and these two are highly personal choices: "The End," by the Doors and Jim Morrison (with whom Nico had a brief relationship that was to have a profound effect on her; according to Richard Witts, Nico was encouraged to write music by Jim Morrison, who also suggested a working method for her) and "Das Lied der Deutschen," the German national anthem. Significantly, Nico sang all of the verses banned since the end of World War II and often dedicated concert performances to members of the Baader-Meinhoff gang, as succinct an indication of Nicos politics as any. In fact (according to Witts again) Nico meant this song as a kind of critique of her native land.
The Marble Index contains a number of songs which seem somewhat "arranged" or "produced," whereas both Desertshore and The End manage to preserve more of the quality of Nico alone with her harmonium. On The End in particular, Cale, along with Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera provide perhaps the best accompaniment that Nico was to ever receive. A majority of the songs on The Marble Index obscure Nicos harmonium, and sometimes the effect is distracting ("Lawns of Dawns," for instance). Other times, though, the arrangements are just right. An example would be "Evening of Light," where Cales restless and dissonant arrangement works perfectly within Nicos song structure to create an effect of growing tension. Nicos style doesnt always mix well with other instruments, which is why she is most effective, generally, accompanying herself. When one performs with other musicians, after all, there is usually a pulse that serves in part to keep everyone together. This was one of the chief complaints of the Velvet Underground against her. In "Evening of Light" Nicos free-flowing rhythm and melismatic style finds a home within the swirling strings provided by Cale.
Obviously, no song of Nicos contains every stylistic element I listed above. However, some songs come closer than others. "Janitor of Lunacy," the opening cut on Desertshore, is an example of one of the few songs on her albums that consist solely of her voice and the harmonium. If Nicos characteristic style on the harmonium is to put melodic material in the left hand with repetitive figures in the right, then already I have to declare a deviation, because this song opens, dramatically, with a swirling ostinato rhythm in the left hand. The effect is somewhat reminiscent of Philip Glass.
The songs melody is then introduced in the right hand. The melody is completely played through, and new melodic material is introduced--one would be tempted to call this the bridge except that it doesnt lead anywhere. Instead, Nicoa voice enters with the melody, in a register somewhat higher than we tend to associate her with. Her voice here is piercing, and this adds to the sense of drama. Melismas are kept to a minimum (more deviations!) but parallel motion is featured prominently: with her right hand, Nico matches her vocal line with the harmonium at the interval of a perfect fourth. This is a harmonic principle highly characteristic of medieval music and would be recognizable as such by most who have had the chance to hear medieval music.
Another stylistic element typical of Nico in this song is her use of the harmonium to provide short quasi-melodic fills in between her sung phrases. The effect here might also seem medieval, but is more reminiscent of Arabic music (and, given the influence of Arabic culture on Europe in the Middle Ages, these two qualities are not so far apart). Despite the fact that "Janitor of Lunacy" deviates some from my list of stylistic qualities, it is instantly recognizable as a Nico song, and when people think of Nicos style, they probably think of something very close to "Janitor of Lunacy."
Ive mentioned the songs dramatic qualities. Unfortunately, these are somewhat undercut by the lyrics. I mean, just what the hell is a janitor of lunacy? It calls up frankly ridiculous images that work against the music. Not all of the lyrics in the song are so ludicrous, but neither do they communicate anything very specific. Then again, as someone once said, messages are for Western Union.
But Nico was capable of effective, and affecting, lyrics, as another song on Desertshore demonstrates. On "Afraid," Nico is accompanied by only a piano and a viola, and the effect is very warm. Susanna Ofteringer, in Nico Icon, uses this song to suggest Nicos reactions to her career as a model (Ofteringer represents this same idea visually by using clips from the movie Striptease, in which Nico starred in the early 60s):
Cease to know or to tell or to see or to be your own
Cease to know or to tell or to see or to be your own
Have someone else''s will as your own
Have someone else''s will as your own You are beautiful and you are alone
You are beautiful and you are alone
These are highly suggestive lyrics, and we may, as Ofteringer does, associate them with Nicos modeling career; or, they may suggest something different. But what Im driving at is that Nico was capable of writing lyrics that function in the way that pop lyrics do--to allow us space to apply them to our own lives, or to construct a fantasy world where the lyrics are directly expressive of the singers personality.
Another characteristic song is "Valley of the Kings," from the remarkable album The End. Richard Witts has identified a striking feature of this album that leaves its mark, even if missed (as it was by me). Nico had hit upon the idea of singing the German national anthem on her album, as a kind of protest against her homeland (including the lyrics banned since 1945): "Nico decided then to use the anthem''s melody for all of her songs on the album . . . Eventually five of her songs carried variants of Haydn''s tune, each opening with the same three notes . . .". Even if not noticed, it is clear that The End is a remarkably cohesive album, perhaps the best of all of Nico''s work.
In "Valley of the Kings," a few notes are piled on top of each other in the right hand; then the left hand introduces a solemn chord that swells before giving way to a very simple repetitive pattern (just two notes alternated) played in the right hand while the left holds a chord. At the very beginning, by the way, you can hear the pedals being worked on the harmonium: it sounds very much like a heartbeat. Nico begins to sing, all the while keeping the two notes alternating in the right hand while, in her left hand, she often follows her vocal melody in parallel motion, though not strictly parallel since she changes the interval from a perfect fourth to a fifth to a minor sixth. One remarkable feature of this song employs a variation on her habit of repeating lyrical and melodic material, which weve seen above in her song "Afraid." In this case, Nico starts a couple of lines and then pauses, while she holds a chord on the harmonium; she then starts the same lyrics and melody over and carries them forward. Its almost as if shes forgotten the lyrics and is pausing to let them come to her. Its a striking effect:
His weapon be
His weapon be my innocence
The killer must not die
On "die," she stretches the syllable into a lengthy melisma of seven notes, while tracking this vocal movement with her left hand on the harmonium in near parallel motion.
As is suggested by what I have written, there is a close, even intimate relationship between Nico and her harmonium. When I had seen the occasional reference to her solo career years ago, this instrument was almost always mentioned as one of her most distinctive features. People have often commented that Nico would carry the harmonium around with her everywhere; James Young said that it was "her only real possession." But the intimacy between Nico and the harmonium is not just the one between owner and object, possessor and possessed. Nico found her artistic self through the harmonium. The playing style she was able to develop, consisting of simple repetitive patterns, of minimal chords (often just two in a song), of notes standing starkly alone or in groups of two or three, of parallel motion: these gave Nico a style through which she was able to shape a body of work which, while not large, is cohesive and powerful and unique.
And after The End, she would largely abandon this style. Nico began by singing other peoples songs and managed to imprint them with something of herself. With The Marble Index, Desertshore, and The End, she was fully able to express her vision. Cales help was important, but while his contributions are always intelligent and musical, his best production choices came about when he both let Nico stand alone with her harmonium and also was able to add spare musical elements that enhanced this basic sound. Nico, the artist, moved away from being a mannequin (Richard Witts charts this movement with sensitivity and precision) and became her own person: the "solitary dream" that Cale mentions in the epigraph that begins this article.
In that same epigraph, Cale also mentions "derelict emotions." Around 1971, Nico began a collaboration (and love affair) with the French director Philippe Garrel. Their first work together--and really, their only true collaboration, as far as I can tell--was released in 1972, La Cicatrice Interieur. In this film, Nico acts and contributes all of the music. This would seem to be an extension of her development as an artist. And yet, though she was to release two more studio albums, a body of recorded live work, and several film appearances in the subsequent years, in many ways her collaboration with Garrel is a regression, back to the time before she had established herself as an artist: back to window dressing. After this time, Nicos work begins to look like a bare strategy for survival rather than the expression of an artistic vision.
Part II of "Lost in the Land" appears in the next issue of HoW, which will be available in June of 2002.