Right upto the times of Grainger, Vaughan Williams and Elgar the UK was deemed to be musically backward simply because the middle/upper classes were quite happy to sit back and be entertained by Italians and Germans who seemed to arrive on our shores in droves, Verdi, Handel etc etc. The lower middle classes and workers were happy to be entertained by the Music Hall but the 'music' media didn't count this uncouth stuff. I think the middle class attitude was why should we bother being creative when the Italians and Germans are doing such a good job for us.

Meanwhile back in Germany the likes of Schiller, Goethe, Herder were imitating our traditional folk ballads.