A tribute to the late Handel scholar and University of Maryland professor Howard Serwer, "Handel Studies" is in two parts. The first offers current research by leading Handel scholars on a wide range of topics, including archival studies, compositional process, historical aspects of the composer's career and music, performance practice, and reception; and aims to suggest new directions in Handel studies and, more broadly, the study of eighteenth-century musical culture. The book's second part reproduces the most substantial essays originally published between 1981 and 2001 in the program books of the Maryland Handel Festival & Conference. Written by the world's foremost Handel experts, these essays are widely recognized as one of the best sources of information on Handel's odes and oratorios, and frequently cited in the scholarly literature, but hard to find. "Handel Studies" makes this essential literature widely available for the first time.