Tomaso Albinoni (June 14, 1671, Venice, Italy – January 17, 1751, Venice) was an Italian baroque composer.

Born to a wealthy paper merchant in Venice, he studied violin and singing. Unlike most composers of his time, he did not seek a post at a church or at courts of nobles or royalty. Instead he composed music independently. Then, in 1722, Maximilian Emanuel II, the Elector of Bavaria, to whom Albinoni had dedicated a set of twelve concertos, invited him to direct the Elector's operas.

He wrote some fifty operas, but is most noted for his instrumental music, especially his oboe concertos.

His instrumental music greatly attracted the attention of Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote at least two fugues on Albinoni's themes and constantly used his basses for harmony exercises for his pupils.

Much of Albinoni's work was lost in World War II with the destruction of the Dresden State Library. Little is known of his life and music after the mid 1720s. The famous Albinoni Adagio in G Minor is a 1945 reconstruction by Remo Giazotto of a fragment from a slow movement of a trio sonata he discovered among the ruins of the State Library.

Contemporary performances and popular culture use

The Adagio in G minor has achieved a level of fame such that it is commonly transcribed for other instruments, and used in popular culture (for example, it has had several occurrences as background music for television programs, and as music in advertisements). One example of a transcription is the recording of the Adagio by classical guitarist Dominic Miller, an Argentine born musician who tours with Sting. It should be noted that the Adagio itself is a transcription and reconstruction of a portion of a single movement of a work, most of which is lost.

During the 1980s Swedish born guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen used the same work, the Adagio in G minor, in the composition Icarus Dream Suite, which he later used live during the intro for Far Beyond the Sun, which can be heard on the Trial by Fire album. It was also used effectively at the very sad end of the film Gallipoli starring Mel Gibson as a World War I soldier.