I'd like to see evidence that past music was more prolific AND community centred AND constant in all of pre-Edwardian Britain.

That would be an awful lot of evidence. Besides, that's a lot more than I've been arguing. What I'm saying is that people like to have a bit of music while they're working, socialising or relaxing, and that it's only very recently that we've been able to get all that music from recorded sources - so there used to be a lot more music-making than there is now.