The family of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew. A wider array of percussion instruments began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100.[24] Gustav Mahler’s 1906 Symphony of a Thousand, for example, has been performed with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs over 400 strong.

The influence of the European musical ideas also began to spread beyond the boundaries of Europe, as European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world. There was also a rise within Europe, especially toward the end of the era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antonín Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions.[27]