He first introduced this new style in two works: Für Alina (1976) and Spiegel im Spiegel (1978).
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"Tintinnabuli is the mathematically exact connection from one line to another.....tintinnabuli is the rule where the melody and the accompaniment accompanying voice...is one. One plus one, it is one - it is not two. This is the secret of this technique." - from a conversation between Arvo Pärt and Antony Pitts recorded for BBC Radio 3 at the Royal Academy of Music in London on 29 March 2000, as printed in the liner notes of the Naxos Records release of Passio.
The alto and bass voices and oboe and bassoon are always M-voices (Hillier's coinage, referring to the melody voice in a tintinnabuli configuration); the soprano and tenor voices and violin and cello are always T-voices (again, Hillier's coinage referring to the harmonizing voice).