The idea of ‘national’ in Croatian 19th-century music shows evolutionary tendencies, which can be articulated in four phases. It started in the period 1800–1830 as a construct leading towards higher general musical standards, displaying universality above particularity as its ideal. It continued in the period 1830–1850 with pragmatic treatment of music as incidental to poetry, supporting non-musical, mostly political issues, where universality equaled particularity. It achieved in the period 1850–1870 the status of a substantial part in the scholarly re-construction of national history, still equaling universality with particularity. Finally, as a concept of ethnic or national art music, it reached in the period 1870–1916 a status of general interest in national cultural life and education, displaying particularity above universality.