This paper describes a project whose goal is to create a database of transcriptions of Native American music. The project focuses exclusively on the material collected and transcribed by Frances Densmore. The database will be be made available to both the public and scholars free of charge via the world-wide web. When completed, the database will contain encoded musical transcriptions, ethnographic background and contextual information, ethnomusicological annotations, and linguistic data. Detailed geographical and temporal information will also being included. A preliminary web site for this project can be found at: http://dactyl.som.ohio-state.edu/Densmore Roughly 25% of the materials have been encoded so far.
Several analytic applications are planned and will be illustrated in this presentation. These include a Native American "themefinder" and map-generating tools for cross-cultural and comparative work.
The authors will discuss a variety of issues, including problems related to copyright, the ethics of musical distribution and use, the quality of transcribed music and texts, the soliciting of public feedback, and the developing of a online community of scholars.