Arcangelo Corelli (17 February 1653 – 8 January 1713) was a Baroque musician and composer from Italy. His music was instrumental in the development of modern sonata and concerto genres, the establishment of the violin's importance, and the first fusion of modern tonality and functional harmony. Corelli learned music with a priest in the nearby town of Faenza, then in Lugo, before coming to Bologna in 1666, according to the poet Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, who knew the composer well. Bologna, a significant center of musical culture, was home to a thriving school of violinists led by Ercole Gaibara and his pupils Giovanni Benvenuti and Leonardo Brugnoli. Corelli studied music with various famous violinists, including Benvenuti, Brugnoli, Bartolomeo Laurenti, and Giovanni Battista Bassani, according to later accounts.

Although historically probable, these accounts, as well as the assertion that the papal contralto Matteo Simonelli instructed him to write in the "Palestrina style," remains entirely unsubstantiated. Corelli's later statement to a patron shows that his musical instruction mainly was concentrated on the violin. According to the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna by 1670, Corelli was accepted as a member at the age of seventeen, according to the Accademia Filarmonica's records. This attribution's integrity has been questioned. Even though Corelli's moniker Il Bolognese appears on the title pages of his first three published sets, this works (Opus 1 to 3), the length of his stay in Bologna is unknown. His grand concerti have a long history in Western culture. Corelli's Op. 6 No. 2 provided the basis for Sir Michael Tippett's Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli. A section of the Christmas Concerto, Op. 6 No. 8, is included on the soundtrack of the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.