The issue of nationalism has become a hot research topic in the current study of Western music historiography.Since Dahlhaus,the research paradigm of musical nationalism has gradually changed,and in the 21st century,Taruskin's The Oxford History of Western Music and Jim Samson's The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music-part of the series Cambridge History of Music -have not only inherited Dahlhaus's concept of writing on the issue of musical nationalism,but also presented different theoretical perspectives and attitudes to- wards nationalism.In the author's view,these two scholars' views on the narrative history of musical nationalism differ between modern and postmodern,linking the historical memory and popular influence of Ethno-symbolism in their research perspectives,and bringing together essentialist and non-essentialist explorations in their historiographical attitudes.To sort out the similarities and differences between these two scholars' concepts, methods and values in writing about musical nationalism will certainly provide new understanding and thoughts on the new century changing direction of nationalism in music history writing in the Western academic world,and will also have important theoretical references for the study and writing of Western music history in China nowadays.