The gesture behind revia ("crouching, squatting") was one of the most difficult gestures for me to reconstruct. In manuscripts it tends to appear as a simple dot, but in printed editions it generally appears as a square dot. (The root behind revia is also the root behind the noun ravua, "square"; thus there has been some debate as to whether revia refers to the form as well as the function of the written sign.) Above, the written sign appears as it is found in Letteris.

This gesture represents a repeated sustained degree, which then becomes an appogiatura to the major or minor second below the sustained degree. In the end (as suggested to me by the pun between Haïk-Vantoura's French translation "pincé" and the English word "pinch"), a pinching gesture seems most suited to represent this motif. The index finger (which moves first) represents the first note of the melisma, while the thumb represents the second note (which is one degree lower).

Updated December 27, 2011