A review of music history indicates how this duality was realized. For example, composers such as Haydn and Schumann "spoke" with a German accent in their works in a manner of speaking, but they also remained loyal to the language itself through the universal appeal of their productions. As a concomitant of these composers, others such as Rameau, Rossini, and Chopin also "spoke" respectively with French, Italian, and even Polish idioms and inflections in their works, but still managed to retain the same universal quality in their music. These were vital considerations from a nationalistic perspective as it related to music: "The music of these composers recaptured in an intangible way something of the national characteristics, spiritual sense, and personal aspirations of their respective people" (Ulrich 240). .

             All of these elements did not just fall into place though, and certain necessary preliminaries to the evolution of nationalistic music took place in earlier decades. The trend, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, to preserve folk songs on a national basis had resulted in many compilations of source material that were later used by many famous composers. The composers of that period had clearly demonstrated how the elements could be used, and Haydn and Schubert used Hungarian Gypsy idioms; Beethoven occasionally quoted Russian tunes; and both Haydn and Beethoven had studied the folk songs of the British Isles. According to Ulrich, "The nationally minded composers in the period after about 1860 found it necessary to consider the musical worth of their own material in order to utilize and exploit their respective folk heritages. This was doubly desirable; for many composers of the time, faced with the tremendous accomplishments of Haydn, Mozart, and especially Beethoven, and unable to meet those giants on their own terms, were thus forced to express themselves on a smaller, more intimate scale" (244).