: The piece consists of two strictly parallel voices moving at a fixed distance from each other throughout.
Pärt composed the work in 1976, shortly after emerging from a period of creative silence and intense study of early music, Gregorian chant, and the mathematics of sound. This was the birth of his Tintinnabuli style—a technique inspired by the ringing of bells, where a melodic voice (often moving stepwise) intertwines with a harmonic voice (arpeggiating the notes of a triad).
. It was written in memory of the composer's step-father (or a close friend). Arvo Pärdi Keskus Versions and Availability