The ninth annual Madison Early Music Festival is pushing the definition of "early" music a few years later.

By featuring the music of George Frideric Handel, all of whose works date after 1705, the festival straddles the cusp of "modernity." The musicians are playing Handel's music, but like all the performances at the weeklong festival, they're playing it on the baroque instruments for which it was written.

The festival is scheduled from Friday, July 12, to July 19 and consists of workshops, lectures and public performances. All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. at Mills Concert Hall in the Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St.

The festival focus "is usually pre-1700," said festival founder Paul Rowe. Still, "the definition of early music is pretty flexible and a source of some argument. Some people date it at 1800; others think it's later than that even. It's not a clear-cut line."

Rowe, a baritone voice professor at UW-Madison, runs the weeklong festival with his wife, soprano Cheryl Bensman-Rowe, and program director Chelcy Bowles. The festival features seven concerts, culminating in an All-Festival Concert on Saturday, July 19, with choral and instrumental music from workshop participants, faculty and visiting artists. Guest artists this year include The Newberry Consort with Marion Verbruggen, Quicksilver, Tempesta di Mare, and Baroque Band.

"It's funny -- when we first started doing this nine years ago, we thought it would be a workshop with a few concerts," Rowe said.

This year's event will feature trumpets, timpani, bassoons and a variety of other instruments, Rowe said, noting that "Typically, it would be primarily recorders and other kinds of wind instruments."

About 100 to 120 people participate in the workshops, while concerts average 400 people.

"(The concerts) have really turned out to be the public face of the festival," Rowe said.

"It's more public than I thought it was going to be originally," he added. "The lectures have been really popular, too, which surprised me."

Madison is an ideal place for the festival, Rowe said. The city is able to sustain groups like Winds of Southern Wisconsin, a recorder society, and there's an avid interest in world music, as shown by the UW-Memorial Union's popular Madison World Music Festival.

"The first year was really taxing and difficult," he said, "but it was successful to a degree -- we got more participants than we thought, and it really seemed to take off. There was a lot of interest right away."

The first 2008 performance is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 12. According to the festival Web site, the Newberry Consort will present "some of Handel's greatest hits in miniature," and feature Dutch recorder virtuosa Marion Verbruggen, harpsichordist David Schrader, soprano Ellen Hargis and baroque violinist and Newberry Consort Director David Douglass.

The Tempesta di Mare performance, "Handel's London," is set for July 13, with "The Harmony of Nations: Handel and the Musical Languages of Europe" performed by Quicksilver on July 15, and led by Robert Mealy and Julie Andrijeski, both highly regarded baroque violinists.

Thursday, July 17, is the date for the Madison Early Music Festival faculty concert, featuring performers from all the chamber groups-in-residence on a program called "The Italian and German Sides of Handel."

Friday, July 18, includes the workshop participant concert at 1 p.m. and an evening performance by Baroque Band called "Handling Handel!" that is described as an "entertaining and dramatic all-Handel program."

Finally, the All-Festival Concert on Saturday, July 19, will feature Handel's 1739 "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day," praising the patron saint of musicians.

Rowe emphasized the slightly more casual atmosphere at early music performances as a selling point for the festival.

"People sometimes feel like concerts at the university are all stuffy and educational, and they're afraid of an environment they're not comfortable in," Rowe said. "Our concerts are more casual than that. The performers are very open; it has more of an improvisatory feel to it.

"You don't really have to prepare for it. You can if you want to, but you also can just come and enjoy the concert."

A 2008 Madison Early Music Festival concert series pass includes admission to all six performances on the July 12-19 concert schedule and costs $65 ($55 for students with a valid ID, and seniors 62 and older). Individual tickets cost $16 ($13 for students with a valid ID, and seniors 62 and older).

For more information about specific dates, times and pre-concert lecture titles, visit the festival Web site.