I just wandered across this short video interview with Josie McDermott. Interesting technique he has for “warming up” his flute before playing. Is this traditional? 
A lot of the old players used to dip or pour water down their flutes before playing. The water, or porter, whatever was handy, would possibly seal any cracks or leaks in the flute.
There us a famous story that Martin Rochford told about the first broadcast the Tulla did: one of them took the flutes and ‘dipped’ them before they went on and ‘threw off the tuning’. Willie Clancy (one of the band’s fluteplayers at the time) was furious about it (he was considered by some as the finest flute player in the country at the time). They didn’t get back on radio for another twenty five years after that.
But yes, it was a common practice.
Interesting!
I can imagine that it is quite effective at helping the key pads seal better. I’ve noticed that old, dried out, antiques often play much better once you play them a bit and get some breath condensation inside the bore. I always put that down to water seeping into any gaps between pads and holes.
The fact that this was common practice also goes to show how durable these wooden flutes are!
I’m reminded of an earlier discussion (2006) we had on similar topics. Here’s my contribution…
I forgot to mention, on the “watering the flute” issue, I am old enough to have witnessed this ceremony in its heyday. In London, in 1974, we would go to “The Favourite”, just off Holloway Road for the weekly music sessions. This is the pub where “Paddy in the Smoke” was recorded. These were not participation sessions as we now know them, but more like informal concerts. In the main session on “Sunday morning” (actually about noon, conveniently after Mass), Jimmy Power (fiddle), Reg Hall (piano) and Paddy Malynn (sp?) (box) were the mainstay. But if they spotted singers or musicians in the crowd, they would be hauled up for a few items.
On one such day, we (a bunch of Australian musicians) were hauled up and received a great reception, a statement about the power of alcohol to spread good will to people of all nations. As I came down, an old chap asked to look at my flute, which was a modern metal one (I hadn’t found a suitable wooden one at this stage). He pored over it, showing it to a friend and they both tried to work out where to put the fingers. I showed him and he tried to play it, but without much success. The thumb keys confounded him in particular. He said “you must be a very good flute player indeed to be able to play a flute like this”.
He then pulled out from his inside coat pocket his own flute, an old German flute, having received the nod from Jimmy that he was invited to play a few tunes a bit later. I took a close look - it was painted in epoxy in an attempt to seal the myriad small cracks, and clamped with Cheney hose clamps at the sockets to force the big ones closed. Inside was coated with a white crust. I could only get a few notes out of it, and found myself echoing his words, but with quite a different meaning. “You must be a very good flute player indeed to be able to play a flute like this”.
“We’d better give this a watering”, he said to his friend, and so one of them put a thumb over the end, while the other poured some Guinness from his pint into it. They sloshed it back and forth a few times, and rotated it to the limit they could without too much Guinness escaping from the finger holes. The thumb was then removed and the Guinness emptied solemnly back into the glass for subsequent consumption.
The flute player (who’s name I can’t remember), then slipped his false teeth out and slipped them into the outside pocket of his coat - “can’t play with them” - and a few minutes later was called up to the stage. He was an older man, and so a little short for breath (no doubt exacerbated by the remaining leaks on the old flute), but he ripped through a few tunes with great style if not so much tone and tune. I could only wonder what he might have sounded like on a good flute.
The moisture would certainly have helped by closing up the many small fissures previous waterings had created, sealing leaking pads, etc, and reducing the boundary effect over the crusty lining of the bore.
No longer recommended practice!
Terry
I remember reading that big Chieftains biography book awhile back and there was a story about a flute player, known to Paddy, who actually kept his flute in the stream behind his house, and said doing so gave the flute it’s unique sound. I always wondered about the truth to that. Keeping a blackwood flute submerged in a babbling brook sounds cool - and mystical, but the reality? Personally would not want to experiment with my Olwell 
They were obviously desperate measures at a time flutes were hard to come by and the ones that could be had were old ones. There were no makers or maintenance people or other respuces to turn to. People tried to make the best of what resources and knowledge they had available to them.
Hi Terry,I’ve sent you several emails,but I haven’t received a reply.
Reviving this thread to say that I recently saw someone do the “pouring water down the flute” thing at a session. Don’t think I’ve seen it done in person before. Not sure how much better/worse it made the flute, but I suppose that’s for the owner to decide. Definitely won’t be doing it to mine anytime soon!