ABSTRACT
James William Davison (1813–85) was in the forefront of British musical criticism for more than 40 years. Trained as a pianist under William Henry Holmes, and a student of composition with George Alexander Macfarren, Davison began his career as a performer and composer, but turned his complete attention to music journalism in the early 1840s. Davison’s major enterprise was the almost single-handed weekly production of The Musical World. This journal was perhaps one of the most enduring of music publications of the nineteenth century. Approximately 1 827 music journals were created in Europe, North America and Australia during this period. After Davison’s death on 24 March 1885, many journals published generally favourable obituaries and tributes to the memory of the critic. Some, however, were touched with a modicum of doubt with respect to the total achievement.
