Using France as a case-study, this essay calls for enhanced recognition of cultural variegation within nation states in the era of European Romantic nationalism. It outlines a new, integrated and comparative approach to the study of provincial music in a context where national centralisation is the norm. The situation in France, especially during the height of the “provincial awakening” around 1900, is analysed in light of the ideas of Ivo Strecker and Joep Leerssen on regionalism and ethnic nationalism, and alongside broader questions of cultural decentralisation. Particular attention is drawn to the challenges posed by borderlands, by the intersection of cultural and political ideas, and by the dangers of false separations between high and low cultures at local level.