Dedicated to the late Alfred Schlee of Universal Edition, the WDR Broadcast Choir premiered the Te Deum under the direction of conductor Dennis Russell Davies on January 19, 1985.

The Te Deum plays an important role in the services of many Christian denominations, including the Paraklesis (Moleben) of Thanksgiving in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

According to the Universal Edition full score, the piano part requires that four pitches be prepared with metal screws and calls for "as large a concert grand as possible" and "amplified".

On an ECM records leaflet, Pärt wrote that the Te Deum text has "immutable truths", reminding him of the "immeasurable serenity imparted by a mountain panorama."

(Hillier 140) The Latin text of the Te Deum is made up of 29 lines of verse, each of which is the subject of one section of Pärt's composition.

Although each of the piece's 29 sections follow this pattern, they function differently from the movements of traditional choral works because they are not punctuated by silences or pauses.

With the notable exception of three silences, each section of the Te Deum flows directly into the succeeding one, with the wind-harp drone often serving as part of the sonic bridge between.

As is common in Pärt's choral works, the melodic contour of the M-voice is subject to a kind of compositional serialization based directly on the text.

Not only does the text provide linguistic meaning, but also it informs the musical form itself in a way that is uncharacteristic of traditional text-setting practices.

Te Deum arguably bears more resemblance to early Christian music than to the choral works of the past three hundred years.

Hillier considers the drone in Te Deum similar to this Orthodox precedent, calling it the "spiritual force" that unites the piece and functions as its foundation.

Not only does the foundational drove function similarly to the base of a mountain (143), but the piece also features many other unchanging elements that imply an immutable, spiritual force.