Download or read book Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought written by Ruth Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-05-04 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-r anging and challenging book, Ruth Smith claims that the words to Handel's oratorios reflect the events and ideas of their time and have far greater meaning than has hitherto been realised. She explores eighteenth-century literature, music, aesthetics, politics and religion to reveal Handel's texts as conduits for the thought and sensibility of their time. The book thus enriches our understanding of Handel, his times, and the close relationship between music and its intellectual contexts.