Shir (שִׁיר) is the ordinary Hebrew word for a song and for the act of singing. It is what Israel does at the Sea in Shemot [Exodus] 15:1, az yashir Mosheh, “then Moshe sang,” and it is the word doubled in the title of Shir HaShirim [Song of Songs], the Song of Songs. Where zamar leans toward making music with an instrument, shir is the voice itself lifted in song. Tehillim [Psalms] 96:1 commands a shir chadash, a new song, the singing that answers a new act of God.