Furtunately Early Music is easier to define than folk... Early Folk results in stuff like the St. Georges Canzona, Anthems in Eden and John Renbourn. Perversely, Topical Tom's list would be classed more as Contemporary Folk, which still has a great deal of relevance to folk-fans the world over, for whom Folk = Comforting Cultural Stasis. No harm there. In the field of Early Music, we have Modernist and Post Modernist approaches, though the material is always historic. I think the Post-Modernist approach is best examplified by Jordi Savall, whose 36 year mission continues to yield great fruits on a plethora of fronts (including much Folk material, even unto his popular Celtic Viol albums). Not so much of the Modernists around these days, though Atrium Musicae de Madrid did some sterling work in this respect (most impressively on Music of Ancient Greece and the truly baffling La Folia, likewise The Clemencic Consort who even in their dotage can still inspire & unsettle in equal measure with their free wheeling approach to everything from the Codex Buranus to Machaut.

Is that pretentious enough for you, Richard?