Vertices and normals are transformed by the modelview and projection matrices before they're used to produce an image in the frame buffer. Use functions such as glMatrixMode, glMultMatrix*, glRotate*, glTranslate*, and glScale* to compose the desired transformations. Or specify matrices directly with glLoadMatrix* and glLoadIdentity. Use glPushMatrix and glPopMatrix to save and restore modelview and projection matrices on their respective stacks.