It’s not Christmas in Morristown until the tubas have sounded.
And it turns out A Merry Tuba Christmas isn’t just tuneful. It’s therapeutic, too.
“This music is good for your breathing, good for your reading, good for cognition, good for every part of your body. It’s a total workout, mentally and physically,” said Margie Hayes, who was among 90 tubists and euphonists who shoehorned onto the Morristown Green for an hour of carols before an enthusiastic throng on Saturday.
Video: Tubular Jingle Bells:
One came from as far as Illinois, visiting for the holidays, and rented a tuba for the occasion, according to Matt Paterno, who shared conducting duties with John Palatucci again this year.
Hayes, 67, hails from Upper Greenwood Lake. She played her euphonium while seated on a motorized wheelchair.
Afflicted with multiple sclerosis, Hayes said she sustained serious burns from medications two decades ago and spent a year recuperating at Morristown Medical Center, then known as Morristown Memorial Hospital.
To cheer her up, a friend advised “you’ve got to have the craziest brass instrument there is,” Hayes recounted. “That was the euphonium, what she plays.”
Slideshow photos by Leslie Raff, Lee Goldberg and Kevin Coughlin. Click / hover on images for captions:
With help from her husband Pete, Hayes insisted on coming to Merry Tuba Christmas Morristown, despite brisk weather.
“Why stop being myself just because I have MS?” she said. The only hard part: The long wheelchair trek to the Green after Saturday’s hour-long rehearsal at the Alexander Hamilton School.
Video: Carol of the Tubular Bells:
Travis Salim, 26, of Rockaway, said his tuba mouthpiece did not feel too cold. But his fingers had trouble turning pages of the song sheets. Still, he would not have missed this event.
“It’s a big sense of community. I like playing tuba, and I like Christmas,” said Salim, who is pursuing a graduate degree in music therapy from Montclair State University.
Morristown’s first Merry Tuba Christmas occurred in 2012.
The tradition dates to 1974 at New York City’s Rockefeller Center. Harvey Phillips conceived it as a tribute to his teacher, the late tuba legend William J. Bell (born Christmas Day, 1902).
Scores of these events now are held around the world.
Video: We Wish You a Tuba Christmas:
