Although the rushed purchase of back-to-school supplies heralds fall in our house, I know for sure that autumn has arrived when I start writing copy for Music of the Baroque’s program books. This week, I completed program notes for Handel’s Acis and Galatea, the charming and surprisingly short “pastoral entertainment” with which we’re opening our 2009-10 season on October 16. During the course of my research—which, of course, involved listening to great music like the aria “O ruddier than the cherry”—I revisited Ellen Harris’s Handel As Orpheus, a fascinating study of the relationship between Handel’s social circle and his earlier works, especially his chamber cantatas. Harris offers compelling evidence that many of these pieces—including Acis and Galatea (the 1718 version)—contain “insider” references to homosexual activity among Handel’s friends and patrons. In the case of Acis, Handel excised some of these references for public performances a few decades later.

Harris is a great historian and scholar. As far as I’m concerned, the more information, the better—and I’m a big fan of her musicological prowess. But what I can’t decide is whether or not revelations like this actually affect the listening experience. Do a composer’s sexual proclivities matter?  Is the knowledge that Handel may have engaged in same-sex affairs, or that Tchaikovsky probably was gay, or that Bach had tons of children, meaningful? Do we care that Schumann had syphilis?  Are these historical facts that help us contextualize our favorite pieces—or just prurient details that satisfy our thirst for scandal?

I always think about whether or not to include details like this when I’m writing about music, and welcome any thoughts.