After the Early Romantics

The trend in European nationalism will develop further as composers from various countries incorporate traditional folk themes into classical music.

The German-Austrian composers will continue to have a profound impact in Romanticism through the music of Johann Brahms, Richard Wagner, and Gustav Mahler until Arnold Schoenberg introduces new concepts of atonality, and later serialism, that will be highly influential in the 20th century.  

Russian composers, including Anton Rubinstein, Mily Balakirev, Alexander Glazunov, Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anton Arensky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, will build on the early Romanticism of Mikhail Glinka.  In the early 20th century, Igor Stravinsky will combine Romantic themes with new rhythmic invention, producing a profound influence on 20th century modernism. 

French Romanticism would flower with composers Camille Saint-Saëns, Ernest Chausson, and Gabriel Fauré.  By the 20th century composers Claude Debussy, Eric Satie, Francis Poulenc and Maurice Ravel would often temper the extreme passions of Romanticism and often add 20th century atonality, while maintaining Romanticism's intimate, lyrical qualities.  This later style is known as impressionism (although it happens a couple decades after French impression in visual art and the term impressionism was rejected by some of these composers, most notably Debussy).

Czech composers Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček follow Bedřich Smetana in further developing Czech nationalism by drawing on Bohemian folk music. Romantic Spanish composers Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla , often incorporating the Spanish guitar, would bring about Spain's most productive musical era since the Renaissance.

Norwegian composer Edward Grieg and Swedish composer Jean Sibelius will be the most influential Scandinavian composers.  Edward Elgar, the only major British composer of the late Romantic period, would write little for the piano.

Important composers from the United States in the Late Romantic period include Edward MacDowell, Amy Beach, and Charles Tomlinson Griffes.  Later U.S. composers would incorporate romantic ideas along with 20th century influences.