From the middle of the 19^th until the 20^th century it was essential for Nordic composers to have studied ‘on the continent’. The institutions they chose for their education were mostly located in Leipzig, Berlin, Paris or Vienna. From here they exported musical techniques into their native countries to develop a characteristic national idiom according to the nationalistic spirit of that time. To outline the impact of German music upon Nordic national composers like Edvard Grieg, Jean Sibelius or Hugo Alfvén and vice versa to show their ambitions to establish their acculturated music on the continent is the main issue of my paper. It will show how crucial the origin of a composer was for the reception of his music in the positive and the negative meaning. Thus my study could serve as a model for studies of the reception of music among other nations in general, e.g. the reception of European art music in Asia respectively the reception of Asian art music in Europe. The leading questions will be: Is there really a national tone, for instance a ‘Nordic tone’, which can be stated objectively for instance by analyzing music? Or is this merely an attitude of reception? Which strategies of acculturation and demarcation were used by the composers? Were there maybe specific kinds of freedom or limitation for the first composers who took contact to the music of another nation? Which rôle played the politics of a country to encourage or prevent such cultural contacts? How did the music-exporting nations react to the successes of ‘their’ composers? Were there maybe some kinds of cultural hegemonies which were not corresponding to the political situation? Were there maybe musical genres created deliberately to be supranational? And finally: How important is it today for the reception of a work to know where its composer was born?