Some Swedish composers flourished in the late 17th and early 18th century under dynastic patronage, e.g. Johan Helmich Roman (1694–1758), known as “the father of Swedish music”. In the course of the 18th century the Swedish bourgeoisie, encouraged by King Gustav III (who founded the Swedish Royal Academy of Music in 1771), started to create their own musical life with public concerts, organ buildings, musical criticism and opera productions. The Academy and the Royal Opera (founded in 1773) attracted prominent composers from abroad, i.e. Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741–1801), who composed the first Swedish national opera Gustav Wasa (1786). A middle-class interest of French parody songs flourished especially in Stockholm, where Carl Michael Bellman (1740–1795) created songs which gained widespread and lasting popularity, and which today are considered a Swedish national tradition. In the next century, poet-musicians continued to create an important “national” song repertoire, e.g. the duets by Gunnar Wennerberg (1817–1901) about student life (Gluntarne, 1847-50) and the solo Songes (1849) by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793–1861).

19th-century musical life is characterized by the foundation of music societies, professional orchestras and music institutions. Besides the increasing influence from art music of Austrian/German and French origin, the interest in folk music stimulated a national school of composition. More than in the opera, the musical drama allowed for a more folk-inflected style; e.g. Värmlänningarne (“The people of Värmland”, 1846) by Andreas Randel (1806–1864).

Influenced by Scandinavism and a sense of a shared Nordic identity, composers privileged this topic when setting texts to music. Even the Swedish national hymn, created in the 19th century, celebrates “life in the North”.

Career opportunities for composers and musicians were scant. Franz Berwald (1796–1868) could not live by his musical work and composed in his spare time; his nationally-tinted compositions are largely limited to a few choral works: Gustaf Adolph den stores seger och död vid Lützen (“The victory and death of Gustav Adolf the Great at Lützen”, 1845); Nordiska fantasibilder (“Nordic fantasy images”, 1846) and Gustaf Wasas färd till Dalarna (“Gustav Vasa’s trek to Dalarna”, 1849). Interest in the operas of Richard Wagner opened up new perspectives for national music, even if stylistic examples could be French. Interest in themes from the Viking period or old ballads are to be found in the works of Ivar C. Hallström (1826–1901; his National-Romantic operas Hertig Magnus och sjöjungfrun, “Duke Magnus and the mermaid”, and Den bergtakna, “The taking of the mountain”, date from 1867 and 1874), August Söderman (1832–1876; symphonic orchestrations of Swedish and Norwegian folk songs), Andreas Hallén (1846–1925; Wagerian operas: Harald der Wiking and Valdemarskatten, 1881 and 1899) and the first prominent Swedish female composer, Elfrida Andrée (1841–1929; the opera Fritiof’s saga, with a libretto by Selma Lagerlöf, 1899). This national penchant increased further in the early 20th century, with the inspiration shifting from historical themes to folk melodies, e.g. in the work of Hugo Alfvén (1872–1942; 3 Swedish Rhapsodies, 1903-31), and a more classical and less chauvinistic approach by Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871–1927).

In the 1930s national idioms fell out of fashion and composers opted for an internationalist modernism, partly also from a desire to dissociate themselves from trends in Nazi Germany. Even so, non-nationalist operas could still be based on national themes: Daniel Börtz’s Gabriel de la Gardie (2008), and Hans Gefors’s Christina (1982-88, about the Swedish queen).