miserere

Miserere is the Latin word meaning “have mercy” and is used in Christian liturgy as an invocation. In particular, Miserere mei, Deus is the incipit of Psalm 51 in the Latin Vulgate, a penitential psalm traditionally recited or chanted during Lent and Holy Week, and in various prayers of supplication.

Musical usage of the term often refers to settings of this psalm or to works named after its opening words. The best known is Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere, a sacred choral piece composed for the Sistine Chapel in the 1630s. Written for two choirs in an a cappella style, it features antiphonal exchanges, lyrical upper-voice lines, and careful use of chromatic ornamentation to evoke penitence. The work became closely associated with Holy Week and the Tenebrae services.

Tradition holds that the score was kept within the Vatican and copies were not publicly circulated for many years; it is said that Mozart and other visitors learned the piece by ear and helped to spread its fame after hearing it in the papal chapel. This anecdote underscored the piece’s reputation as a prized and elusive masterpiece of the early Baroque era.

Beyond Allegri, the Miserere text has inspired numerous settings by later composers and has remained a common title for penitential choral works. Today, the term Miserere is used broadly to refer to settings of the Psalm or other devotional pieces invoking mercy, within liturgical and concert repertoires.