Thomas Robinson was an English Renaissance lutenist and composer active from around 1589 to 1610, though his exact birth and death dates are unknown. He and his father served the Cecil family, with Thomas Robinson employed by Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, and evidence suggests he also worked in Denmark, teaching lute to Princess Anne (later queen consort of England) and Queen Sophie at Elsinore before 1589. In 1603 he published The Schoole of Musicke, an influential tutor for lute, orpharion, bandora, and viol that displaced an older continental-derived method as the standard English text. In 1609 he issued New Citharen Lessons, a substantial tutor and repertoire collection for the cittern. No further records of his life survive after 1609.

Robinson’s The Schoole of Musicke displaced earlier continental-derived tutors as the standard English method for lute, orpharion, and bandora, shaping how a generation of English amateurs learned to play. His duets for two lutes, including Twenty Waies upon the Bells and The Queenes Good Night, remain staples of the Renaissance lute-duet repertoire, while New Citharen Lessons is one of the richest surviving sources for early English cittern music, giving Robinson lasting significance beyond his otherwise slender biography.

Sources:

• http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/Robinson.html
• https://sites.google.com/view/another-lute-website/r/thomas-robinson