In this piece, Alain employs a classical form—exposition, development, recapitulation—partly to showcase a melody and rhythms that, at the time, were considered "primitive." The composer's sister, organist Marie-Claire Alain, wrote that the rhythm of several passages "defies musical notation," which is an obvious exaggeration; the piece was, after all, published in conventional notation. What she meant was that the rhythms, some of them North African, do not fit comfortably between Western bar lines and they require a good deal of dexterity and imagination from the performer. The piece begins innocently enough, with an archlike little tune in the high register followed by a chordal sequence. The reedy third theme is the Moroccan snake-charmer music, twisting around with liberal grace notes and odd accents. This and the chordal theme dominate the tumultuous development section. In the abbreviated recapitulation, Alain smooths out the North African tune a bit, emphasizing its relationship to the simple opening melody.

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