BIVALENCE X，for Two Mandolins（2013）

The mandolin is an instrument in the lute family. The lute was derived from the oud which is used in the Arabia and Persia from a long time ago. I am familiar with the oud because I was involved in a work in Egypt for a few years in the 80s. With such a background and not a little experience in which I used the mandolin for music for theatre that I was engaged in countless times in the past，I have written two works for mandolin orchestra，which were published from Zen-On. The mandolin may not be a major instrument today，but I still think that it is very charming.
So I decided to add a piece for the mandolin to my Bivalence series，the works for two players of the same instruments. Following the Bivalences for the cellos，violins，violas，clarinets，oboes，contrabasses，percussions，saxophones and trumpets，this is the tenth piece of this series.
The sound of mandolins makes all music have Italian taste. With no resistance to this commonly accepted idea，or rather，taking advantage of the idiom the instrument has，I attempted to shed new light on the mandolin and achieve full potential of it to produce an uncommon duo work for this instrument.