In 1942, Wolpe composed the musical score for The Man from Midian, a ballet conceived by Winthrop Palmer for Eugene Loring and his Dance Players. Though Wolpe fully orchestrated the first version of the The Man from Midian Suite (premiered by Dimitri Mitropolous and the New York Philharmonic in 1951), the only remaining, complete version is scored for two pianos. The ballet, which chronicles the story of Moses, may be regarded as a product of the Jewish "renaissance" of this period, a reawakening interest in Jewish religion and culture that emerged in Jewish-American circles. Throughout his creative life, Wolpe assimilated new cultural and aesthetic influences, continually refining an eclectic compositional idiom that was highly personalized and multi-dimensional. The Man from Midian reflects not only Wolpe's engagement with 1940's New York culture, but also his experiences in Weimar-era Germany and Palestine.

The Man from Midian is divided into sixteen scenes, each of which chronicles an episode in the Hebrew flight from Egypt, beginning before the birth of Moses and ending with Moses' banishment from the tribe. Musically, each scene is set as a self-contained "piece." Unlike many methods of this period, Wolpe's compositional approach allows for a smooth, ever-shifting exchange of diatonic, octatonic, and twelve-tone harmonies. Wolpe's brand of eclecticism was rare and even transgressive in the sharply fragmented musical world of mid-twentieth-century America, starkly divided between the supporters of Stravinskian Neo-Classicism and Schoenbergian Serialism.

The composer's experiences in Europe and the Middle East informed the inclusive, idiosyncratic language of this piece. While living in Palestine in the 1930's, Wolpe explored twelve-tone methods after briefly studying with Anton Webern in Vienna, and investigated indigenous Arab and Hebrew folk music. In the ninth scene, as Moses seeks guidance from God after having murdered an Egyptian taskmaster, the music resembles a sung Arabic prayer based upon exotic modal scale patterns and rhythms. Throughout the piece, however, modal and diatonic figures remain closely integrated with atonal clusters.

The extreme formal clarity and integrity of each section partly reflects the influence of Wolpe's early mentor Ferruccio Busoni, who introduced Wolpe to "Young Classicism," a movement that sought to curb the "excesses" of Expressionism by transforming classical forms with an aesthetic sense of proportion. The Man from Midian explores and transforms traditional textures, such as imitative canons and accompanied melodic lines. In the sixth movement, for example, Wolpe spins out a brilliant and wild fugal texture that becomes more and more tangled as the piece progresses, serving as a vivid metaphor for the convoluted intrigues of the Egyptian court.

The Man from Midian also suggests Wolpe's fervent political and social beliefs. In Berlin, Wolpe had joined the communist party and dedicated himself to composing music for the revolutionary cause. In Palestine, Wolpe had actively participated in the kibbutz movement and written music for the kibbutz community. To Wolpe, the musical avant-garde and the political avant-garde were inseparable causes. The determined, epic character of the final chorus of the Man from Midian, titled the "Gathering of People," powerfully evokes Wolpe's populist social ideals. The Man from Midian is more about "the people" (and for "the people") than an homage to a particular leader.

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