Desiderius, a five-voice vocal ensemble based in Vienna, dedicates itself to the performance of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Franco-Flemish music. The name Desiderius, Latin for "the desired," reflects the intellectual transformation at the heart of the Renaissance: desire for knowledge both sacred and worldly. Desiderius was also the forename of Erasmus (c. 1466-1536), the foremost of the Northern European humanists and intellectual father of the ecclesiastical revolution now known as the Reformation.

While the Franco-Flemish style fused worldly and sacred desire in highly original ways, today this music is seldom heard live in concert. In the five centuries since its creation this music has retained a rare beauty: it is brilliant yet contemplative; awesome yet refined; impassioned yet calm. In the spacious acoustic of gothic churches, this music's meditative effect rings most persuasively. The broad tones of lower male voices create a thick and stable fundament for upper voices to float over. In addition, the open intervals sounding throughout this music produce overtones that resonate like a musical aura within the church.