Mano a mano

Celedonio Flores wrote the lyrics of Mano a mano around 1920, drawing on a narrative recounted to him by the singer Fernando Nunziatta, who was then suffering from tuberculosis. Flores, then about twenty-four, presented the text to Carlos Gardel and José Razzano, who had already set his earlier poem Margot to music. Gardel is said to have initially doubted that so young a writer could have produced the verses and to have remarked that the letter must have been written by Flores’s father or uncle; the two musicians nevertheless composed the music in a “milonguero” manner that alternates instrumental and vocal sections throughout.^[1][2] The poem is cast in quintillas, a stanza form rarely used in song at the time, which complicated the musical setting. Gardel recorded the work in 1923 for Odeón; he recorded it again in Barcelona in 1927. A short film directed by Eduardo Morera in 1931 includes a dialogue between Gardel and Flores before the performance.^[1][2] The text is dense with lunfardo (rechiflao, bacana, percanta, morlacos, otario, etc.) and portrays a compadrito who claims to have settled accounts with a former lover who has risen in social status. Because of its colloquial language the piece was among those affected by the 1943 radio prohibitions on lunfardo. It has been recorded by Charlo, Francisco Canaro with Roberto Maida, Hugo del Carril, Alfredo De Ángelis with Carlos Dante, Edmundo Rivero, Julio Sosa with Leopoldo Federico, and Roberto Goyeneche, among many others, and remains a standard of the repertoire.^[1][2]

Origin of the lyric

Flores based the text on a story told by Fernando Nunziatta; the poem was written in quintillas and presented to Gardel and Razzano after the success of Margot.^[1][2]

First recording and early diffusion

Gardel’s 1923 Odeón recording was the first; a second Gardel version followed in Barcelona in 1927. The 1931 Morera short includes an on-screen exchange between Gardel and Flores.^[1][2]

Language and later reception

Heavy use of lunfardo led to radio restrictions after 1943; the work has nevertheless remained in continuous circulation through recordings by major singers and orchestras of subsequent decades.^[1][2]