Spring 2027

Special Topics in Music

Special Topics in Music explores wide-ranging topics in music history, performance, theory, or education.

offering recorded1–3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Javier CalderonOriol Sans Arrufat

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Margaret Butler

Grading was characterized as unnecessarily tough, with specific complaints about penalties for illness and lack of clear direction.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Develop and apply foundational concepts of musical study in performance, theory, history, or pedagogy.

  • Develop the ability to learn independently and to integrate knowledge across domains of research and applied studies.

  • Communicate musical ideas and concepts verbally, in writing, or through public performance.

  • Develop skill in working collaboratively and professionally in applied and academic settings.

Source: UW Guide

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

Spring 2027

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

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

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LAB 011Classroom Instruction0 / 300
LAB 038Classroom Instruction0 / 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

Past student reviews · Margaret Butler

Students described the course as poorly organized and overly strict, with vague guidelines that were enforced harshly.

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

Past student reviews · Margaret Butler

Grading was characterized as unnecessarily tough, with specific complaints about penalties for illness and lack of clear direction.

Past student reviews · Margaret Butler

One student found the teaching style unpleasant and felt the instructor had an inflated sense of importance for a basic class.

Topics

  • Music history
  • Music performance
  • Music theory
  • Music education

Skills

  • Apply foundational concepts of musical study in performance, theory, history, or pedagogy.
  • Learn independently and integrate knowledge across domains of research and applied studies.
  • Work collaboratively and professionally in applied and academic settings.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— 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 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

1280 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 · Spring 2027

Special Topics in Music

Recorded 2026-10-14
MUSIC 297 · Spring 2027

Beginning Class Guitar

Recorded 2026-10-14
MUSIC 297 · Spring 2027

All-University Phil Orchestra

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:660:026560",
    "course_id": "MUSIC 297",
    "course_uid": "course_16e51e486970b4d2385f093e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026560",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "Special Topics in Music",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:660:026560.2",
    "course_id": "MUSIC 297",
    "course_uid": "course_16e51e486970b4d2385f093e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026560.2",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "Beginning Class Guitar",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:660:026560.8",
    "course_id": "MUSIC 297",
    "course_uid": "course_16e51e486970b4d2385f093e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026560.8",
    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "All-University Phil Orchestra",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "0d50a89380b0cb960d1e0869a8e7fc26ff451adc9bd0689c5c539b9d9ec9273e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}