Complex sentence: In 1885 he was awarded an honorary degree by Durham University and he later acquired the professorship of music at Oxford University in 1889 and conducted pioneering research into early music, notably the output of Guillaume Dufay, then scarcely known even among experts.
Split into simpler sentences: In 1885 he was awarded an honorary degree by Durham University and he later assumed the professorship of music at Oxford University in 1889. He conducted pioneering research into early music, notably the output of Guillaume Dufay, then scarcely known even among experts.