Spring 2027

Music & Film

Survey of film music exploring scores by major composers like Newman, Steiner, Herrmann, and Morricone through lectures, listening, and film viewing.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Laura Schwendinger

Students noted that everything written on the board was valid for tests, which made the exams very easy to prepare for.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Investigate the central history of Film Music from the "Golden Era" of film music, from Korngold through Max Steiner, and Bernard Herrmann through analysis of film scores.

  • Critically analyze and synthesize the elements of each of the major film composer's styles, to understand which elements are used to telegraph deeper meaning and emotions in their film scores.

  • Identify scores with an exam that tests aural skills as well as historical knowledge.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
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F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
MUSIC 107

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

LAURA SCHWENDINGER is recorded teaching in Spring 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. 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

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Laura Schwendinger

Laura Schwendinger taught this course with visible enthusiasm for film and music, aiming to instill a genuine love for the material in students.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.32 GPA, 54.8% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.31 GPA, 65.4% A/AB (n=26 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.42 GPA, 76.9% A/AB (n=26 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Laura Schwendinger

Students noted that everything written on the board was valid for tests, which made the exams very easy to prepare for.

Past student reviews · Laura Schwendinger

The class felt scattered and difficult to follow week to week, with a disorganized Canvas page that obscured grades and a syllabus that lacked structure.

Topics

  • Film scores by major composers including Alfred Newman, Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, and Ennio Morricone, plus current trends.
  • Contributions of composers such as Aaron Copland, Serge Prokofiev, and Leonard Bernstein to film music.
  • History of film music from Korngold through Max Steiner and Bernard Herrmann, analyzed through film scores.
  • Techniques and styles of film music studied through lectures, required listening, readings, and film viewing.

Skills

  • Critically analyze and synthesize stylistic elements in film scores to understand how they convey meaning and emotion.
  • Apply aural skills and historical knowledge to identify film scores.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

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

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "9c812f653ac13a076c6da300a8eb388303e71367135f8e4bcf06560a1c5c541e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}