Out of Doors (Hungarian: Szabadban, German: Im Freien, French: En Plein Air) is among the very few instrumental compositions by Bartók with programmatic titles.

After World War I (1914–1918), Bartók was largely prevented from continuing his folk music field research outside Hungary.

[4] Another influence on the style of his piano compositions of 1926 was his study and editing of French and Italian (pre)-Baroque keyboard music in the early 1920s.

[10] Bartók applied this juxtaposition of "The Night's Music" in a slow tempo with a presto section in a single piece/movement also in the second (middle) movement of his Second Piano Concerto.

Károly Viski quotes this song in reference to the shamanistic origin of the text: If we remember that the Hungarians, like many other people, were adherents of Shamanism in a certain period of their ancient history, these remnants can easily be understood.

And if “he wants to hide”-that is in modern parlance- if he wants to fall into trance, besides other things, he prepares himself by dancing, singing and by performing to the accompaniment of drums ceremonial exercises […] Traces of this can be found even to this day in Hungarian folklore; of course […] in children’s playful rhymes: [song quote] In the game which goes with this little rhyme, they beat each other with great noise and rapid gesticulation.

The opening, closing, and coda sections consist of imitations of drums and lower wind instruments—"pipes".

[14] Bartók made a sketch of an orchestration for this piece in 1931, using for the opening section timpani and gran cassa ('drums') and (double)-bassoons and trombones ('pipes').

With drums and pipes and Tambourine of Bartók's Nine little pieces similarly consist of sound imitations of folk instruments.

[16] A noteworthy instruction reads Due o tre volte ad libitum (play optionally two or three times), giving the performer a degree of freedom rare in classical music scores, and underlining the improvisatory and spontaneous nature of folk bagpipe music.

This is far from a traditional duet, because the characters, tempos and tonal centers of the two parts vary widely, as often in Bartók's night music.

[25]The many precise dynamic and stress signs witness how Bartók aimed for very specific performance and sound effects.

They are prefaced and separated (except for the fourth and fifth episode) by 'ritornello' type sections of repeated cluster chords in a clashing rhythm (duplets in 68 measure).

The piece is related to the pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin, in character to the chase scene and harmonically to the important two building blocks which are presented directly at the start of the pantomime:[27] The left hand plays an ostinato arpeggiated quintuplet chord of F, G♯, B, C♯, E, of which the E is on the beat (68 measure).