Co-founder of Society of Gay and Lesbian Composers, San Francisco (1981)
Founder and director of Die Männerstimmen (men’s chamber chorus), San Francisco
Director and conductor of Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco (1985-86)
AIDS Activist (appeared on radio and television, spoke on panels and lectured around the country)

Rodger Pettyjohn grew up in Texas, where he studied music, especially church music and conducting, and played the organ. He moved to San Francisco in the late 1970s, where he was active in gay choruses; in 1981 he was co-founder and the major force behind the Society of Gay and Lesbian Composers (SGLC), with co-founder Paul Attinello. Pettyjohn also founded and directed the men’s chamber chorus Die Mannerstimmen, which was very active in the San Francisco Bay area in the early to mid-1980s.

Most of his compositions during this period were tonal, and many of them choral; he often combined a traditional context with startlingly inappropriate elements (such as his cantata with tap dancer), in an effort to destabilize what he saw as the homophobic monolith of religious tradition.

As his health deteriorated in the late 1980s, Pettyjohn moved to New York, where he began experimenting with a radical style that was new to him. He acquired an Apple IIe and began working on indeterminate and programmed compositions, aiming for the creation of textures that suggested some of the timbral compositions and quasi-fractal video art that he was exposed to at the time. Unfortunately, many of these last works are in unreadable or uncompleted formats, being based on algorithms for which he did not leave sufficient documentation. These include a string quartet, extant only in printouts of pages covered with numbers.

Pettyjohn was energetic and eager to create and direct organizations, events and works, most of which were closely tied to gay identity and culture. Despite illness and financial difficulties in his last years, a time when the arts were downsizing all over America, he continued to be remarkably active right to the end, shifting his energy from organizing groups and concerts to creating at his computer screen.

—adapted from a biographical note by Paul Attinello

WORKS:

CHORAL/VOCAL

The Best of Games Are Gay
for: SSATTBB chorus, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, piano, optional audience refrain
date: 1985
duration: 4:00
text: James Broughton
premiere: closing ceremonies, Gay Games II, August 17, 1986
note: Official Gay Games II theme song

A Cantata for Gay Celebration
for: SSA, TTBB, SATB choruses, brass and percussion ensembles, dancers, flag wavers, orchestra and twirling corps!
date: 1981
duration: 25:00
texts: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Henry David Thoreau, Gerald Pearson

Christmas Canticles
for: TTBB chorus, flute, piano, handbell choir (10 players), percussion
date: 1985
duration: 22:00
text: 16th-17th century published hymns, German and Latin
note: 3-octave chromatic handbell set required: C below middle c to 2 octaves above
premiere: San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and Ensemble, San Francisco, December 1986

Christus Rex!
for: unison and 2-part vocal, organ
date: 1977
duration: 15:00
text: Rite II, Holy Eucharist, Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal)
premiere: Christ the King Episcopal Church, Fort Worth, TX

Five Meditations on Words of St. Thomas à Kempis
for: alto, flute, cello
date: 1973
duration: 8:00
premiere: Debbie Simpkin, alto, Carol Cappa, flute, Linda Wilkie, cello, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 1974

Five Songs from James Broughton’s Graffit for the Johns of Heaven
for: baritone/tenor and piano
date: 1983
duration: 8:00
premiere: Daryl Wagner, tenor, Scott McKenzie, piano, Broughton European tour 1984-85
other performances: Dale Richard, baritone, Terry Peterson, piano, SGLC concert, San Francisco 11/3/85 Dale Richard, baritone, Dwight Okamura, piano, memorial concert, San Francisco 9/8/91
published: Micro Pro Musica Press

For Those We Love
for: 7 soloists, SATB or TTBB chorus, horn (or synthesizer), 2 pianos, visual media
date: 1984
duration: 12:00
texts: John Donne, Gerald Pearson
premiere: Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, inaugural concert of Gay Games II Cultural Week, San Francisco 8/17/86
published: Micro Pro Musica Press
note: AIDS-themed work

The Pearson Songs
for: tenor, flute, cello
date: 1981
duration: 10:00
text: Gerald Pearson
note: synthesized instrumental version available
premiere: Kevin Ames, tenor, San Francisco, June 1986

A Requiem
for: SATB soloists, trumpet, trombone, 3 percussion
date: 1973
duration: 10:00
texts: Latin Requiem Mass (excerpts)
premiere: Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, 1973

Shamon Psalm
for: TB soloists, sexy tap dancer, male chorus line, TTBB chorus, piano
date: 1984
duration: 10:00
text: James Broughton

["The shivering tree and sea"]
for: tenor and piano
date: 1989
text: untitled poem by Calvin Doucet
performed: Marco Remedios, tenor, Dwight Okamura, piano, SGLC concert 11/5/89; memorial concert 9/9/91

INSTRUMENTAL

Trio
for: flute, clarinet, violin
date: 1980
duration: 15:00
premiere: Patrick Hurtado, flute, Scott Meierding, clarinet, Tom Geschwind, violin, San Francisco 1980

ELECTRONIC

Missa Amatoria (Erotic Mass)
for: computer processed synthesizer on tape
date: 1986
duration: 40:00
premiere: SGLC concert, San Francisco, March 1986
broadcast: KQED-FM, San Francisco 6/23/86
recorded: independently released on cassette with Electronic Etudes

Electronic Etudes
    Moon Eclipse
    The Fog Rolls In
    Journey to the Source
for: computer processed synthesizer on tape
date: 1986
duration: 40:00
recorded: independently released on cassette with Missa Amatoria

Ich geh’ kaput, gehst du mir? (I’m Going Crazy, Want To Go Along?)
date: 1987

RND4, A Collaboration between Computer and Composer
date: 1987

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Unknown

WRITINGS:
"Report from the Eastern Front," unpublished 2-page essay, Fire Island, New York (September 1, 1989).
Letter from Pettyjohn to "Blue" Gene Tyranny about AIDS medical treatment and politics (March 1991).

DISCOGRAPHY:
No professionally released recordings

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• "Rodger Pettyjohn: A Personal Memorial" by Paul Attinello, Society of Gay and Lesbian Composers Newsletter (September 1991), pp. 4-5.

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
Unknown

RESOURCES:
Micro Pro Musica Press
P.O. Box 14045
San Francisco, CA 94114
www.micropromusica.com

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
Dr. Paul G. Attinello
Department of Music
School of Arts & Cultures
Armstrong Building
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
United Kingdom
Tel: (44) (191) 222 7993
Fax: (44) (191) 222 5242
p.g.attinello@ncl.ac.uk

OTHER CONTACTS:
Unknown