This paper aims to compare Polish, Ukrainian and Croatian phraseological units from the semantic field of music, point out their similarities and differences, and use semantic analysis to determine their origin, meaning and motivation or in-depth structure. Based on the analyzed works, one can observe three types of phraseological units: those that refer to music in both their components and meaning, those that refer to music only in their components, and those that refer to music only in their meaning. Semantic analysis shows that the phraseological units are primarily motivated by musical terms, or the look or function of musical instruments, and that their in-depth structure is mostly connected to historical events, folk tradition, or the signaling function that certain instruments held in the past. Analysis also shows that the phraseological units are mostly equivalent, however, there is a small number of phraseological units that have no equivalents in the musical idioms’ repertoire, and a number of those that can't be explained using another phraseological unit, which is a reflection of the uniqueness of each language and culture. The similarities between Croatian, Polish and Ukrainian phraseological units, especially when it comes to europeisms and biblisms, stem from the fact that they belong to the same language family, as well as their shared traditions and culture. The presence of musical motives in phraseological units and the similarities between phrasemes of all of the three languages prove how daily life, tradition and culture impact and reflect on language, and vice versa.