Spring 2027

Special Topics in Music

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

offering recorded1–3 credits

Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Gabrielle Cornish3.7/5 Ilana Schroeder3.7/5 Margaret Butler3.0/5 +8 more

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=66 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.1% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 89.2% A/AB (n=74 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

Develop and apply intermediate and advanced concepts of musical study in performance, theory, history, or pedagogy.
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.
Conduct research in an area of interest related to the course topic.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗

average GPA
letter grades

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Professors

Spring 2027

Gabrielle Cornish

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 1 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.87 GPA, 93.3% A/AB (n=15 letter grades).

Ilana Schroeder

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 4.00/5 from 3 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.79 GPA, 94.7% A/AB (n=19 letter grades).

Margaret Butler

Adjusted rating

RMP difficulty

captured reviews

About this rating

Raw average: 2.00/5 from 14 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.83 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades).

Arun Luthra

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=16 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Chris Rottmayer

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.78 GPA, 94.4% A/AB (n=18 letter grades).

Hannah Grosse

No course-specific feedback yet.

Lindsay Flowers Koh

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades).

Matthew Trevino

No course-specific feedback yet.

Oriol Sans Arrufat

No course-specific feedback yet.

Ruka Shironishi

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.77 GPA, 81.8% A/AB (n=11 letter grades).

Sarah Brailey

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.95 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=19 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ARUN LUTHRA is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRIS ROTTMAYER is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GABRIELLE CORNISH is recorded teaching in Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ILANA SCHROEDER is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

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

RUKA SHIRONISHI is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SARAH BRAILEY is recorded teaching in Fall 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.

Section	Mode	Enrolled / capacity
LAB 049	Classroom Instruction	0 / 20
LAB 031	Classroom Instruction	0 / 20
LAB 051	Classroom Instruction	0 / 10
LAB 012	Classroom Instruction	0 / 20
LAB 036	Classroom Instruction	0 / 20
LAB 050	Classroom Instruction	0 / 15
LAB 038	Classroom Instruction	0 / 10
LAB 061	Classroom Instruction	0 / 10
LAB 136	Classroom Instruction	0 / 20
LAB 059	Classroom Instruction	0 / 6
LAB 159	Classroom Instruction	0 / 6
LAB 201	Classroom Instruction	0 / 55

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=66 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.90 GPA, 95.1% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 89.2% A/AB (n=74 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

Music history
Music theory
Music education

Skills

Apply intermediate and advanced concepts of musical study
Integrate knowledge across research and applied studies
Work collaboratively and professionally in applied and academic settings
Conduct research in a related area of interest

Grades

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 5 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 · 0.09 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 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 497 · Spring 2027

Special Topics in Music

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Oboe Reed-Making

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Sound Cultures, Sound Politics

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Music Business

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Tolkien, Music, Middle-earth

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Gamelan

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

All-University Philharmonia

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Universality of Rhythm

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Business of Voice

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Musical Women

Recorded 2026-10-14

MUSIC 497 · Spring 2027

Life Sov Union Mus Film Media

Recorded 2026-10-14

Raw records

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    "source_subject_id": "660",
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    "source_subject_id": "660",
    "title": "Universality of Rhythm",
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]

Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades

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": "cc53df11a6cf814cb8a358366922f9b1a0c749f11f6445c8eb1becbcbce5da29",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}

Special Topics in Music

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

Grade history

Prerequisites

Professors

Calendar & sections

Student experience

the class

difficulty & workload

Topics

Skills

Grades

Spring 2027 · Projected

Grades over time

Where this course fits relative to UW–Madison

Sources & history

Catalog & offerings

Student reviews

Grade history

Where this course fits relative to