The gesture behind telisha qetannah ("small pulling away") is defined by the Manuel du Lecteur as "drawing out the word to the rear". In printed editions the written sign and telisha gedolah (below) have "tails" which distinguish one from the other, and which evidently point out the ascending or descending character of the melodies and gestures they represent. In manuscripts, however, both signs are simple circles.

It appears that to form this gesture, the hand must rise from the rest position while turning 90 degrees toward the cantor-chironomist, even as the hand forms a sort of circular "tube". The thumb then marks the last of an ascending chain of four degrees (including the sustained degree), as in E-F#-G-A (in minor mode).

Updated December 27, 2011