Nicole Okeson and Professor David Day, HBLL Special Collections

I began my ORCA research studying the a book of etudes written by the composer Saverio Mercadante. We had done research and found that this particular book of etudes had not been published and felt that it would be a valuable book to publish. In studying the manuscript I became acquainted with Mercadante’s writing style and also gained insight into the workings of the Classical Flute, which is vastly different from today’s modern flute in mechanism and agility.

During the course of study of this work, a published manuscript was found in Europe. After discovering this we chose to look and see how good the publication was and if it was available in the US. In our preliminary research we were not aware that this book of etudes had been published under a different title. I spent time comparing the manuscript owned by the BYU library and the publication we discovered and found that the publication was an excellent rendition of Mercadante’s etudes. Dr. Day and I had discussed doing our own publication if the one we discovered was inaccurate but this was not our finding.

My original plan with the project had been to edit and publish a book of etudes. Once this was no longer a viable option, Dr. Day and I turned out attentions and efforts to working to secure funding to obtain more manuscripts from the same collector who had sold the BYU Special Collections the Mercadante manuscript. In preparing for this I wrote a proposal and researched the works housed in this vast collection (the Braun Flute Collection).

In writing the proposal I was able to use the things I had learned in working with the Mercadante manuscript, and my experience as a member of the flute studio at BYU to work to help secure this valuable collection. I researched many of the composers whose works are housed in the collection and gained valuable insight into the flute music of the Classical Era.

While my research did not result in publication as I had hoped, I found that I was able to help with the obtaining of more similar manuscripts that I believe could be valuable to future BYU students, particularly students from the BYU flute studio