Nigel Davison was one of Europe’s most distinguished musical scholars and editors of Renaissance polyphony.

Born into a military family in 1929, in Meerut, India, he was educated at Wellington College before proceeding to the Royal College of Music and Peterhouse, Cambridge. After university, his passion for church music and organ playing, developed in college chapels during his student days, led him initially into public school teaching at Oundle and, subsequently, as director of music at his alma mater, Wellington from 1957-67.

Along the way, he studied conducting with Sergiu Celibidache at Siena and undertook the rigorous preparations for the Edinburgh doctorate in music that involved writing a research thesis in addition to submitting a substantial repertoire list of organ works from which the examiners could select at will, and at very short notice, for his doctoral recital.

Already a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Davison was awarded his DMus in 1962, his researches on Pierre de la Rue and transcriptions were published, and careers in cathedral music and academic life beckoned. It was the University of Bristol’s good fortune that, when an unexpected vacancy occurred in 1966, Davison was appointed to a lectureship in the department of music, where he remained until his retirement in 1991.

In the days before the expansion of the university sector most British music departments were relatively small. Consequently, staff were expected to be multitalented — they were general practitioners in the best sense — and Davison’s combination of keyboard and research skills together with his teaching and conducting experience made him an ideal colleague.

During the next 20 years or so, he was as likely to be found contributing his light tenor to the choral society as playing the organ for one of the many degree ceremonies at Bristol — or even struggling in the cello section of the university orchestra, since lecturers then were expected to participate fully in all spheres of music-making.

His teaching duties embraced both his specialisms and a selection of his general interests. Hardly a term passed without his colleagues being amazed by his insights into Wagner, for example, or his discerning appraisal of modern compositions. Among the many highlights were his regular recitals on the university’s rebuilt Nicholson organ and some memorable choral performances that ranged from his conducting of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in the Colston Hall to Tallis’s 40-part motet Spem in alium.

It says much for Davison’s motivation and dedication to the study of primary manuscript sources that, despite the varied demands on his time and talents, he continued to produce outstanding research that enhanced his reputation as a leading authority on the music of Pierre de la Rue and his contemporaries. With J. Evan Kreider and T. Herman Keahey, he was appointed joint editor of the American Institute of Musicology’s complete edition of La Rue’s works and by the early 1990s the first fruits of this co-operation, much delayed by technical problems, began to emerge to critical acclaim. The “encyclopaedic erudition shown by the editors” was cited. It was a significant achievement and all the more remarkable for being completed with the minimum of sabbatical leave and in a context that produced other Davison publications on Josquin des Prez, Antoine de Févin, Christopher Tye and Salisbury Cathedral Liturgy (the Processions).

A more ambitious and self-centred person could well have used these achievements as a springboard for self-advancement, but Davison settled for a senior lectureship at Bristol and weekend hill-walking in Wales or the Lake District with his friends and family. For some years he indulged his operatic interests by conducting the Bristol Opera Company (1967-77) and he combined scholarly and performing roles while directing the early music choir, Westron Wynd, and serving as organist at the Lord Mayor’s Chapel. As a tutor he distributed wise counsel and, as a member of the faculty board, he offered sage advice together with an occasional shaft of well aimed wit.

He continued with editorial work until recently, most notably completing the Opera Omnia of Mabriano de Orto (Antico Edition, 2009), and for a while he acted as a locum organist in local churches.

His marriage to Kirstine (née Meikle) ended in divorce. He is survived by Biddy, whom he married in 1997, and by three sons and a daughter from his first marriage.

Nigel Davison, musician and scholar, was born on December 1, 1929. He died on October 26, 2009, aged 79