Memory and Continuity
The poignancy of greif and rescue
Collage of Artifacts with Photograph by Jon Phetteplace 1985, Aviva Rahmani.
Decades ago, one of my oldest and dearest friends, Jon Phetteplace, committed suicide after his battle with AIDS began to flag. My ex-husband, Payson Stevens, inherited his beautiful photographic portfolio and has been trying to place it. I have several of Jon’s beautiful works, including a few of his platinum print studies of Bristlecone pines. Jon once asked me to marry him. The sexual barriers were irrelevant to him but I didn’t see a realistic future. Today, Pays let me know he may have found a home for Jon’s work. May it be so. Just a couple days ago, someone saw and admired this print I have of Jon’s near my front door in a mini-installation. It was shot in my California studio of a model I was working with. Funny how life finds ways to collage our experiences.
Later the same day, I got the news from Pays that UCSD accepted his work!!! “Creator: Phetteplace, Jon Title: Jon Phetteplace Papers, Date (inclusive): 1958 - 1991Extent: 13.80 linear feet(6 archives boxes, 6 records cartons, 2 card file boxes and 39 oversize folders)Abstract: Papers of Jon Phetteplace, composer and performer of contemporary music. Phetteplace collaborated in the improvisational group, Musica Electronica Viva (MEV), and in The Contraband, which featured some of the same members. From 1966 to 1969, he was active as a performer of new music in Europe, particularly in Rome and Florence, and this activity continued for several years after returning to the United States, where he eventually shifted his repertoire to traditional classical music. The papers include drafts, transparencies, andozalid prints of his own scores, as well as materials for the performance of works by others; correspondence with composers and friends; programs from Phetteplace’s activity with orchestras and small ensembles; miscellaneous appointment books, calendars, and journals; photographs; subject files; notebooks; and audiorecordings of his work and the work of others. One of the strengths of the collection is the extensive documentation of his time in Italy, both in terms of his own work and that of others. The latter includes tapes and scores of works by Pietro Grossi and Giuseppe Chiari, two Italian composers that were very important to Phetteplace. The papers are arranged in eight series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) MUSICAL WORKS BY PHETTEPLACE, 3) MUSICAL WORKS BY OTHERS, 4) PROGRAMS, 5)PHOTOGRAPHS, 6) WRITINGS, 7) MISCELLANEOUS, and AUDIORECORDINGS. Repository: University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library. La Jolla, California 92093-0175 Collection number: MSS 0135Language of Material: Collection materials in English.