Biography

Prior to becoming Dean of FASS in April 2019, Alan was Deputy Dean from July 2017. Before joinging UTS, he was Head of the School of Arts at UNE, having been in the role since February 2014. He is scholar of the long nineteenth century, specialising in music and visual culture, art and aesthetics, celebrity studies, and music performance practice. His doctoral thesis was on the great Hungarian pianist-composer Franz Liszt, and he has since published widely on portraiture of musicians, visual culture and aesthetics. 

Can supervise: YES

Research Interests

  • The long nineteenth century.
  • Music and visual culture.
  • Art and aesthetics.
  • Historical celebrity studies.
  • Music performance practice.
  • Music cognition

Publications

Davison, A 2016, 'Collecting musical prints in late eighteenth-century England: Taste, self-improvement and John Bland's 'portrait series'', Music in Art: international journal for music iconography, vol. 41, no. 1-2, pp. 203-213.

Davison, A 2013, 'Woven songs and musical mirrors: Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'symbolic physiognomy' of music', British Art Journal, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 89-94.

Davison, A 2011, 'New light on the painter and engraver Thomas Hardy (1757-1804)', British Art Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 86-90.

Davison, A 2011, 'Painting for a Requiem: Mihaly Munkacsy's The last moments of Mozart (1885)', EARLY MUSIC, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 79-+.View/Download from: Publisher's site

Davison, A 2009, 'THE FACE OF A MUSICAL GENIUS: THOMAS HARDY'S PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH HAYDN', EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 209-227.View/Download from: Publisher's site

Davison, A 2009, 'The iconography of an emigre musician: Henri-Pierre Danloux's 1795 portrait of Jan Ladislav Dussek', EARLY MUSIC, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 175-+.View/Download from: Publisher's site

Davison, A 2006, 'Franz Liszt and the development of 19th-century pianism: a re-reading of the evidence', MUSICAL TIMES, vol. 147, no. 1896, pp. 33-43.View/Download from: Publisher's site

Davison, A 2005, 'Virtuosity Domesticated: Portraits of Franz Liszt by Two Biedermeier Artists', Nineteenth-Century Music Review, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 3-22.View/Download from: Publisher's site

View description

The wide variety of nineteenth-century images of the great pianist—composer Franz Liszt (1811–1886) provides both art historians and musicologists with a rich resource through its sheer diversity and comprehensiveness. Of great potential value are the insights that Lisztian iconography may provide into the changing nature of Romanticism and music during much of the nineteenth century. © 2005, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Davison, A 2017, 'John Brown's Dissertation (1763) on Poetry and Music: An Eighteenth-Century View on Music's Role in the Rise and Fall of Civilization' in Eisen, C & Davison, A (eds), Late Eighteenth-Century Music and Visual Culture, Brepols Publishers, Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 55-70.

View description

In this volume, nine prominent scholars employ a set of interdisciplinary methodological tools in order to come to a comprehensive understanding of the rich tapestry of eighteenth-century musical taste, performance, consumption and ...

Davison, A 2014, 'Franz Liszt amongst the degenerates: On the vagaries of being a musical genius, c. 1890– c. 1935' in Liszt's Legacies, Pendragon, New York, pp. 236-258.

View description

In collaboration with Michael Saffle, James Deaville of Carleton University has assembled a collection of essays devoted to these subjects as well as operatic aspects of the symphonic works, Liszt and theories of "degenerate genius," and ...

Davison, A 2013, 'Representing music making' in Shephard, T & Leonard, A (eds), The Routledge Companion to Music and Visual Culture, Routledge, London, pp. 87-94.

Davison, A 2012, 'Liszt and Caricatures: The Clarity of Distortion' in Liszt A Chorus of Voices : Essays, Interviews, and Reminiscences, Pendragon Press, Hillsdale, NY, pp. 68-75.

View description

In celebration, Pendragon announces Liszt: A Chorus of Voices. Although it contains the results of scholarly research and the opinions of more than a few academics, this volume is not a musicological monograph.

Davison, A 2012, 'Portraits of Dussek from London and Paris' in Illiano, R & Stewart-MacDonald, R (eds), Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812). A Bohemian Composer ‘en voyage’ through Europe, Ut Orpheus Edizioni, Bologna, pp. 227-253.

Davison, A 2009, 'HAYDN AND THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC', EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC, CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, pp. 318-320.View/Download from: Publisher's site

External partners

Musicological Society of Australia (immediate past President)

International Musicology Society (member, and member of mentoring scheme)

Understanding British Portraits (listed specialist)