A corresponding air is evoked by the music of negro entertainers at a bar-room just around the corner. In this part of New Orleans you are practically always just around the corner, or a few doors down the street, from a tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers. This "blue piano" expresses the spirit of life which goes on here.
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 1. The opening setting of the play describes the music of the black entertainers in New Orleans. This is used to portray the vibrancy of the city and the happy life the people in this part enjoy. But there is also an underlying suggestion of sadness with the reference to the piano being "blue." The motif of music is used throughout the play to set the mood and reflect the inner lives of its characters.