The records of English music can be traced back to the medieval age. This means
that it was already a very widespread culture. It comprised of the Church music,
popular and court music, which we refer to as folk music. Religious and Church
music was greatly affected from the sixteenth century by Reformation.
This cut
short lots of those events, which were associated to the concept of music. Court
music, in contrast, remained much more ingrained into the European culture. This
often drew those composers who were born in the continental Europe.
Towards the latter half of the 19th century, in the components of the United
Kingdom, this started obtaining national identities. Thus, it produced many
musicians and composers who are noteworthy. It also drew them to the English
music, which we now term as the folk music.
Until the age of industrialisation
folk English music flourished a lot. It was at this point of time that it
started being substituted by new genres of popular music like the brass bands
and the Music hall. Two folk revivals were thus initiated when this fact was
realized. One of these folk revivals took place in the later half of the 19th
century as well as in the middle of the 20th century. This preserved the folk
English music as a vital sub-culture amidst the world.