In the Faroe Islands the long 19th century has been extremely long, and developments that took place in Scandinavia from the 1870s to the 1920s on the classical music scene were delayed in the Faroes until the latter half of the 20th century. There are certain trends in nationalistic punk, avantgarde music, ethnic hard rock and modern contemporary music that rely on, evoke and bolster a sense of being Faroese. Ballads and religious music often provide inspiration.

As far as the legacy of Romantic Nationalism in the proper historical sense is concerned, the Danish classical composer Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) deserves mention. His Rhapsodisk Ourverture “En Fantasirejse til Færøerne” (“Rhapsodic overture «An imaginary voyage to the Faroe Islands»”, 1927) used Faroese ballads and has been adopted by the Faroese as representative of their nationality musically – even though Nielsen was Danish and never visited the Faroes.