The title The Piano Lesson has a lot to do with not only the themes in the play, but one would think after reading the play that the title helps to set the tone as well. According to Dictionary.com theme is defined as a dominant idea or concern of a work and The Piano Lesson has many. The Norton Introduction to Literature defines tone as defined as the attitude that a literary work takes toward its subject and theme. Both of these factors are important aspects of the play, and they also make the title valuable.
             One of the most important themes of The Piano Lesson is history. In the play Boy Willie makes it very clear that he wants to sell the piano and take the money to buy some of Sutter's land. One has to question how genuine Boy Willie is, but he does make a valid point when he says my daddy had seen where he could have traded that piano for some land of his own, it wouldn't be sitting up here now? Boy Willie then goes on to elaborate about how his family worked Sutter's land in the past without any kind of long-term benefit to them. He then tries to justify selling the piano by saying that by selling it he can finally benefit from all the long years of work that his family put into the land.
             The piano is very important to Berniece because it stands for so much of her family's history in her eyes. She thinks that there isn't any amount of land that could make it worth selling. In the play Berniece says, Money can't buy what that piano cost. Can't you sell your soul for money? The piano was traded for an anniversary gift for Mrs. Sutter. Mr. Sutter didn't have any money to get his wife a present, so he traded two slaves to Mr. Nolander for the piano. Mr. Nolander chose Berniece's great-grandmother and her son, which would be Berniece's grandfather. Mrs. Sutter later offered to trade back the piano for her two slaves because she missed having them around. When Mr. Nolander declined, she fell sick to bed for a long while....