Spring 2027

Introduction to Music Cultures of the World

Introductory ethnomusicology course exploring global musics beyond standard music history through active engagement in larger world contexts.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 John WalshJordan Kowalski

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Erin Brooks

There was almost no homework, and students found that simply showing up to class and preparing for each midterm was sufficient to achieve a good grade.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Engage with various musics on students' own terms

  • Speak and write clearly about what is heard.

  • Recognize and contextualize the several genres of music that represent each cultural area selected for study in the course

  • Think rigorously about how positionality, including your own, affects listening and knowledge practices

  • Have learned something about yourself -- strengths, weaknesses, biases, desires, tendencies, curiosities

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
FOLKLORE/MUSIC 103

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ERIN BROOKS is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LUCILLE MOK is recorded teaching in Fall 2020, Fall 2022, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARGARET BUTLER is recorded teaching in Fall 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MATTHEW RICHARDSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

NADIA CHANA is recorded teaching in Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1000
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 220
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1000
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 220

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Nadia Chana

Students described the course as an easy way to earn credits, featuring fun lectures, interesting speakers on world music, and exams that functioned largely as vocabulary tests.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.94 GPA, 95.6% A/AB (n=248 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.40 GPA, 65.5% A/AB (n=226 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.49 GPA, 75.2% A/AB (n=165 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Erin Brooks

There was almost no homework, and students found that simply showing up to class and preparing for each midterm was sufficient to achieve a good grade.

Past student reviews · Nadia Chana

One student noted that the required Tophat app cost an extra $16, which they found to be a minor inconvenience despite the overall positive experience.

Topics

  • Musics typically excluded from traditional music history curricula.
  • Genres representing various cultural areas.
  • Positionality and its impact on listening and knowledge.

Skills

  • Recognizing and contextualizing musical genres within their specific cultural areas and world contexts.
  • Speaking and writing clearly about auditory experiences and musical elements.
  • Critically reflecting on how personal positionality influences listening and knowledge construction.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.18 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1286 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
FOLKLORE/MUSIC 103 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Music Cultures of the World

Recorded 2026-10-14
FOLKLORE/MUSIC 103 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Music Cultures of the World

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
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    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:380:012911",
    "course_id": "FOLKLORE/MUSIC 103",
    "course_uid": "course_3f1632cb1d6e623d73051062",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "012911",
    "source_subject_id": "380",
    "title": "Introduction to Music Cultures of the World",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:660:012911",
    "course_id": "FOLKLORE/MUSIC 103",
    "course_uid": "course_3f1632cb1d6e623d73051062",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "012911",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "Introduction to Music Cultures of the World",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "65458214bfe63cdf26fc15bac70a0117c5470e3b0cf4267b582dcbf6c008662d",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}