Fall 2026

Special Topics in Music

MUSIC 297 explores wide-ranging topics in music history, performance, theory, or education.

offering recorded1–3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Javier CalderonJavier GorelikOriol Sans Arrufat

Summary

1 / 6

Historical reviews of Margaret Butler: Margaret Butler's section is reported as unnecessarily tough on grading and punishing for minor guideline deviations or illness.

Grade history

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

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
MUSIC 297

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.98 GPA, 98.2% A/AB (n=56 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.81 GPA, 92.6% A/AB (n=27 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.89 GPA, 96.3% A/AB (n=27 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Margaret Butler: Margaret Butler is described as poorly organized and overly strict, with vague guidelines that lead to harsh grading penalties. Reviewers found her unpleasant and noted she punishes students for being sick, resulting in a very low quality rating.

JAVIER CALDERON is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARGARET BUTLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Spring 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

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LAB 011Classroom Instruction26 / 350
LAB 038Classroom Instruction8 / 1000

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

A historical review of Margaret Butler describes the course as poorly organized with vague guidelines and harsh grading, advising students to avoid the class.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.97 GPA, 97.4% A/AB (n=77 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.1% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 97.4% A/AB (n=78 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Margaret Butler: Margaret Butler's section is reported as unnecessarily tough on grading and punishing for minor guideline deviations or illness.

Historical reviews of Margaret Butler: Students found Margaret Butler's teaching unpleasant and poorly organized, with a lack of clear expectations despite strict enforcement.

Topics

  • Music History
  • Music Performance
  • Music Theory
  • Music Education

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · 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

1283 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
MUSIC 297 · Fall 2026

Special Topics in Music

Recorded 2026-09-07
MUSIC 297 · Fall 2026

Beginning Class Guitar

Recorded 2026-09-07
MUSIC 297 · Fall 2026

All-University Phil Orchestra

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
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    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "026560",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "Special Topics in Music",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
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    "source_course_id": "026560.2",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "Beginning Class Guitar",
    "credits_min": 1,
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    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
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    "offering_id": "1272:660:026560.8",
    "course_id": "MUSIC 297",
    "course_uid": "course_16e51e486970b4d2385f093e",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "026560.8",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "All-University Phil Orchestra",
    "credits_min": 1,
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]
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 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "83c02588ca5ede7ba9825b76c062cb10b17b810a2dfb7317fad88ebee0c00916",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}