Robert Dowland was an English lutenist and composer, born around 1591 as the son of the celebrated lutenist-composer John Dowland. Raised partly amid his father’s service at the Danish royal court, he grew up surrounded by leading musicians of the day. In 1610 he published two important collections, A Varietie of Lute Lessons and A Musicall Banquet, gathering works by leading English and continental lutenists alongside a handful of his own compositions and a translated treatise on lute technique. He performed in a court masque in 1613 and later traveled in Europe with an acting troupe during the 1620s. Following his father’s death in 1626, Robert Dowland succeeded him as one of the King’s Lutes, a royal post he held until his own death in 1641.

Robert Dowland’s lasting importance lies less in his own modest compositional output — only a handful of pieces are securely attributed to him — than in his work as an editor and anthologist. A Varietie of Lute Lessons and A Musicall Banquet preserved and transmitted lute repertoire by his father and by leading French, Italian, and English composers, including a rare printed lute-playing treatise, making them indispensable primary sources for understanding early seventeenth-century lute technique and repertoire across Europe.

Sources:

• http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/DowlandR.html
• https://sites.google.com/view/another-lute-website/d/robert-dowland