BETHEL – William Ripley Griffin, great-grandson of brass band leader and composer, Winfield Scott Ripley (1839-1924), provided details on the life of his ancestor at the beginning of the Ripley Band Festival held July 26 on the grounds of the Bethel Historical Society’s Dr. Moses Mason House.

Five bands, including the Carter Mountain Brass Band from the lake district of New Hampshire, the Newmont Band of the upper Connecticut River of Vermont and New Hampshire, the Centennial Brass Band of Portland, the Mahoosuc Band of Bethel and the Yankee Brass Band, performed.

The celebration of 19th century brass music was held on the same grounds where Dr. Moses Mason established a tradition beginning in the 1850s of having brass bands gather in his grove for concerts.

The festival honored Winfield Scott Ripley of Paris, who composed and arranged music for brass bands and orchestras during the Civil War and beyond.

Like most boys growing up in rural New England, Ripley attended district school in winter and spent summers farming. Largely self-taught in music, he received his early tutoring from a singing school, where his father played the cello at dances and at church.

Ripley collected singing books and hymnals, which became his music theory texts. At 18, he joined the village band where a new world of music, with the clamoring of “new fangled” brass instruments, took a strong hold on him.

In no time, he was borrowing the band’s handwritten part books and recopying them into scores. With this form of reverse composition, he taught himself the art of arranging music for brass bands.

As soon as he mastered the E flat cornet, he led the Norway Sax Horn Band during the 1850s. At the onset of the Civil War in 1861, Ripley, in his 20s, enlisted with the 7th New Hampshire Volunteer Regiment Band. Then in 1862, he went to Boston and served for the remainder of the war on the “Ohio,” which was docked at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

After the war, he stayed in Charlestown and continued playing in bands and orchestras, taught music and found time for composing. In 1868, Ripley moved to the outskirts of Boston and the village of Wakefield. There he organized his own band, and also found time to conduct the amateur Mozart Orchestra.

A prolific composer, Ripley lived to see his name on hundreds of band and orchestra publications. By the mid-1880s, music publishers began to issue his original compositions and arrangements.

During his lifetime, he composed nearly 70 marches and wrote in all the popular forms, including songs. His compositions totaled nearly 200. Around 1910, Ripley, then his 70s, retired. For most of his career, he kept an office in Boston.

The Yankee Brass Band’s performance in the early evening featured a number of works by Ripley, including “The Roof Raiser,” “Pride of the Nation,” “Company D,” “Battle of Life,” “Sunlight” and “Victory.”

A special exhibit highlighting Ripley’s musical career, arranged by Ben B. Conant, curator of the Paris Cape Historical Society, was recently opened at the society’s O’Neil Robinson House.

Those attending the festival were welcomed by Bethel Historical Society President Allen Cressy and by James Bennett, who organized the appearances of the bands and made the introductions. Prior to the performances, there was a discussion of antique brass instruments by Wayne Collier.

For more information about the society and its activities, call 824-2908 or (800) 824-2910, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.bethelhistorical.org.