On Friday 28 March at 13:00 in the Veerensmederij in Amersfoort, the Portuguese saxophone and percussion duo Bernardo Pereira and Tomás Luiz perform Arnold Marinissen’s Pithos.

Pithos is the Greek name for the large ceramic vase-shaped containers that were used around the Mediterranean Sea in the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Although pithoi were utensils in the first place, they were often generously decorated with spirals, meanders, waves, geometric motifs and patterns, or scenes. Generally the size of a man, and not manoeuvrable by a single person, they were primarily built for the storage or transport of fluids or foodstuff. However, when set to fire, a pithos filled with olive oil could well serve as a tool for defense. Old pithoi were sometimes used as bathtubs, even as coffins. And, according to legend, the Greek philosopher Diogenes used a pithos as a night shelter. At some point, the life span of all of those giant pithoi unavoidably came to an end. After all, ceramics are not made for eternity… Pithos for alto saxophone and vibraphone is filled to the brim with high-spirited material for both instruments: spiraling and meandering motifs and patterns; hypnotic, repetitive and staccato sixteenth note passages; an exploration of the full range of both instruments. A recapitulation of the more reflective opening material closes the the piece, after which two final sforzati “smash the ceramic”, thus ending the short life span of Pithos.