According to Ellen T. Harris, Professor of Music at MIT, the composer George Frederick Handel was gay. Harris reaches this conclusion based not on any new revelations into Handel's personal life, about which little is known, but on "the clear homosexual subtext" she detects in his operatic works. As evidence, Harris notes that much of Handel's music is punctuated by long silences. "It is quite striking and very emotional," she declares. "It denotes something that cannot be said—love that dare not speak its name, if you like."

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