The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship (sometimes simply called Euro 2024) is hosted by Germany this year. It is taking place from 14th June until the 14th July. There are 24 teams taking place. Germany automatically qualified but the remaining 23 teams have had to play qualifying matches. 

In the run up to the final, we are going to visit some of the countries who have made it into the competition and listen to some of their traditional music, or to the music of some of their most famous composers. 

We start with England. 

England – traditional folk music 

England has a strong tradition of folk music. Folk comes from the German word 'volk' meaning 'the people' and folk music is often thought of as being the music belonging to 'the people'.  

They are songs which people would sing out in the fields while working, or in the evening when they all got together to wind down after a hard day. The songs have been passed round through generations as they would sing to their children and their children’s children.   

The songs often reflect life: they tell the stories about the life of the countryside and friendships. While some of the music are ballads (tell stories), some of the music is instrumental. Some of the instruments you are likely to hear are a fiddle (violin), guitar, flute, pipe, tabor (type of drum) and a harmonica.

Here are some groups playing folk music. The second group play a version of Greensleeves. There is a myth that King Henry VIII wrote this but it is just that - a myth - as historians think it was composed after he died.