Mark Zuckerman

The underlying structure is derived from the passacaglia: a theme (ostinato) and 31 variations built on the ostinato. The variations are grouped into movements that mimic the movements of a Classical symphony.

Out of the Wilderness uses the octatonic collection (e.g., C#-D#-E-F#-G-A-Bb-C). Many of the variations employ a harmony drawn from the octatonic scale where the chords sound like major and minor triads (although they function in ways different from what you might expect from tonal music). Others exploit the relationships between complementary groups of notes (groups that taken together contain all the notes in the scale without repetitions), an approach similar to twelve-tone music based on relationships among complementary parts of the chromatic scale.

Out of the Wilderness uses duple meter, although the two beats are different sizes. The meters in Out of the Wilderness use five subdivisions to the measure, grouped 3+2 (long/short) and 2+3 (short/long).