By the beginning of the 19th century, the basic characteristics of classical music in Western Europe had already taken shape. This music was the result of a long series of events and reached its apex during that period. The musical experience of Continental Greece during the same period was determined by ecclesiastical post-Byzantine music, which had its own technique, written notation and theory, and its own structure, which was completely different from the corresponding one of Western music. At the same time, folk songs based on local particularities, eastern patterns and, of course, Byzantine melodies, contributed even more to the differentiation of the musical sounds, taste and, most of all, limitations in following Western musical motifs.
Out of the areas inhabited by Greeks, only the Ionian Islands fostered Western musical models in secular as well as ecclesiastical music, because of their long-standing relations with the West. The Greeks of the communities of the Diaspora, as well as the urban strata of Smyrna and Constantinople, were moved by almost the same kinds of music.

As one would expect, it was the foreign and Heptanesian musicians who started the procedure of introducing Western musical motifs to the new-fangled Greek state. Since the years of Kapodistrias, the teaching of European music had been introduced into the Orphans' home of Aegina, while a little later the first military band, Mousikos Thiasos (Musical Company), was organized. A band of the Bavarian army arrived with Otto. The importance of military music is not to be dismissed, for apart from the typically military ceremonies, the bands also performed in squares, main roads or other public areas, causing the residents of the capital and the big cities to become accustomed to Western musical forms and these unfamiliar instruments. The first pianos arrived in Athens in 1830, while the teaching of music began in 1836 at the schools of Philekpedephtiki Etaireia. In 1871 the Mousikos kai Dramatikos Syllogos 'Odion Athinon', (Association of Music and Drama - Conservatory of Athens) was founded, and ever since it has been one of the basic institutions of musical education.

Nikolaos Chalikiopoulos Mantzaros (1795-1872) from Corfu was the most eminent of the composers of that era. Also a teacher of music, he studied in Italy and returned to Corfu where, in 1840, he founded the Philarmonic Society of Corfu. Apart from his general contribution to the formation of modern Greek music, on the basis of Western expressive and technical methods, the fact that he set to music various poems by Dionysios Solomos is particularly important. In 1865 the first twenty-four bars of his music for the Imnos is tin Elephtherian (Hymn to Liberty) became the National Anthem. Another important musical personality was Spyridon Samaras (1861-1917), who is probably the most famous Greek composer of that period. After studying at the Conservatory of Athens, he went to Paris to continue his studies, after which he followed an international career. It should be noted that in 1896 Samaras composed the Hymn of the Olympic Games, the lyrics of which were written by Kostis Palamas. Another two remarkable Greek musicians from the end of the 19th century were Dionysios Lavragas (1860-1941) from Cephallonia and Napoleon Labelet (1864-1932) from Corfu.