Abstract
Although much of the music in Alban Berg’s 1935 opera Lulu is comprised of twelve-tone rows, the composer included elements of tonal harmony as musical signifiers, a common component in Berg’s serial works, which were described by René Leibovitz as, “the most radical way of creating a firm bond between Schönberg’s work and the past.” One such harmonic element is C, which appears in the opera as a sustained pedal, as the root of a major third or major triad, and as a diatonic key in Berg’s adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s lute song, Konfession, as a prostitution theme in Act III. C major follows Lulu from the household to the brothel; Berg uses the chord at moments when Lulu’s sexual promiscuity and impoverished upbringing lead to her characterization as basic, even primitive, playing on the historical perception of C major as a basic, fundamental chord in tonal music. Chiefly, Berg uses C major as a tool for social critique, as its associations with perceived primitivism ultimately highlight the hypocrisies of naturalist philosophy and the bourgeoisie in a similar manner as used by expressionist artists of the time, such as Ernst Kirchner and George Grosz. This paper examines Berg’s use of C major in Lulu and its implications, drawing meaning from Berg’s own conceptions of tonal and twelve-tone music, as well as from the philosophies of expressionist artists and writers in post-WWI northern Europe.