The psalm usually appointed for penitential acts, being the 50th psalm in the Latin version. It commences with the word miserere.

A musical composition adapted to the 50th psalm.

Miserere by Gregorio Allegri is a piece of a cappella religious music (a setting of Psalm 50/51) composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for use in the Sistine Chapel during matins on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week. It was the last of twelve falsobordone Miserere settings composed and chanted at the service since 1514 and the most popular: at some point, it became forbidden to transcribe the music and it was only allowed to be performed at those particular services, adding to the mystery surrounding it. Writing it down or performing it elsewhere would be punished by excommunication.

Miserere, Op. 44 was written in 1981 by polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki for large (120 voices) a cappella mixed choir. It was first performed in Wloclawek, central Poland in 1987.

The Miserere, by Josquin des Prez, is a motet setting of Psalm 51 (Psalm 50 in the Septuagint numbering) for five voices. He composed it while in the employ of Duke Ercole I d'Este in Ferrara, most likely in 1503 or 1504.Scherr, p. 295 It was one of the most famous settings of that psalm of the entire Renaissance, was hugely influential in subsequent settings of the Penitential Psalms, and was itself probably inspired by the recent suffering and execution of the reformer Girolamo SavonarolaMacey, p. 184ff..