Thomas Robinson

Thomas Robinson
(fl 1589–1609). English lutenist, cittern player, composer and teacher. From the dedication to James I in his Schoole of Musicke (1603) we know that he was ‘once thought (in Denmarke at Elsanure) the fittest to instruct your Majesties Queene’.

This must have been before Anne's marriage to James in 1589. In the dedication of his second publication, New Citharen Lessons (1609), to Sir William Cecil, he made it clear that both he and his father enjoyed the patronage of several members of the Cecil family. He wrote that he was ‘sometime servant’ to Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, and that his father had been ‘true and obedient servant’ to ‘your Lord and Grandfather’, William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Robinson was one of 12 lutenists who played in the Merchant Taylors' banquet given in honour of James I on 16 July 1607.

Robinson's importance lies in the clear exposition of his lute method set forth in The Schoole of Musicke. Before its publication it is likely that lute technique in England had, for some time, been based mainly on J. Alford's translation (A Briefe and Easye Instru[c]tion, 1568) of Adrian Le Roy's method (now lost), published in Paris in 1567. Robinson's method shows some important differences from Le Roy's, chiefly in his treatment of right-hand technique. He advocated the use of the thumb more consistently in passages on the lower courses where, according to earlier instruction books, alternating thumb and first finger would have been used; his use of the third finger in some passages of single notes on upper courses was a complete innovation. He explained with care the graces to be used in playing his music and included sections on playing the viol and on singing. He also indicated left-hand fingering for five pieces.

One other work of Robinson's, Medulla Musicke, was entered in the registers of the Stationers' Company in 1603, but no copy is now known. The full title of the work indicated that it contained his intabulations and arrangements for voices of the ‘40tie severall waies’ by Byrd and Ferrabosco on Miserere (see Wayes). Robinson's music is fresh, charming and often witty; some is of outstanding quality.