Mapping Trumpet Pedagogy: Addressing Challenges in Knowledge Circulation Through an Online Bibliographic Database

abstract: Trumpet pedagogy is inherently interdisciplinary, with practitioners drawing on a wide range of fields. Within this discipline, circulation of knowledge is hindered by a dual barrier of inaccessibility: practitioners face difficulty in locating relevant materials and prohibitive costs to accessing them. The divide between scholarly and non-scholarly materials exacerbates the problem, as each domain often neglects the other's contributions. Surveying the landscape of existing online bibliographic databases in music such as IMSLP and the Wind Repertory Project, this article considers the possibilities and limitations of current tools in improving access to brass pedagogy resources. It then describes the theoretical and technical process of creating DataBrass, a new online bibliographic database for trumpet and brass pedagogy resources housing over 9,000 entries. Integrating the principles of semantic (linked) data and interoperability with existing tools like VIAF and Wikidata were key design steps. Results from this project underscore both the highly discipline-specific challenges of constructing a bibliographic database, as well as the constantly-shifting nature of technology and the internet.