This chapter reconsiders the socio-cultural function of the British symphony from the English Musical Renaissance to the post-Brexit era, challenging narratives of stylistic emancipation and ‘national’ renewal. It argues that rather than representing an autonomous British tradition, the symphony in Britain has continually operated as a site of dialogue with European identity, functioning through processes of imitation, synthesis, homage and critique. From Parry’s and Stanford’s pedagogical embrace of Austro-German models to post-1945 responses, the chapter reveals a persistent engagement with European lineage as a mode of cultural self-definition. Tracing this intertextual ‘sounding together’ across stylistic shifts –from the EMR to the ‘Cheltenham Symphony’ and the pluralism of the twenty-first century – the chapter proposes the ‘British’ symphony as a sub-genre of European critique that continually reimagines its relationship to continental tradition.