Mano
Italian for "hand"; mano destra (right hand) and mano sinistra (left hand) assign a part to a hand in piano scores.
What it means
Mano is the Italian word for "hand". In piano scores it appears almost exclusively in the phrases mano destra (right hand) and mano sinistra (left hand), which specify which hand is to take a particular part or passage.
In the notation
Often abbreviated m.d. and m.s. (in English editions also r.h./l.h.), the indication appears above or below the relevant staff, typically where a part temporarily moves from one hand to the other or where the assignment is not otherwise obvious.
Musical use
Such hand indications appear above all in virtuosic 19th-century piano music, for example in Chopin or Liszt, when the voice-leading and staff layout alone do not make clear which hand should take a note, for instance during hand crossings or divided chords.