24. March Tune for "Lekhah Dodi"

^{Choir of Gur Hasidim, conducted by the composer Aryeh Goldknopf, Jerusalem, September 1976.}

In the view of Gur composers (see above, no. I, 23), the march is the most appropriate musical genre for "Lekhah dodi'' since one can march off "to meet the bride" to its melody. The present niggun was composed for the Inauguration Service of the Sabbath between the New Year festival and the Day of Atonement ("Shabbat shuvah") in 1976. Elements of popular polyphony are characteristic of the choral singing of Gur Hasidim: (i) singing in thirds; (ii) sporadic rhythmic interjections on one note at the ends of phrases (indicative of the influence of instrumental music on Hasidic music).