"[1] Moe was born in 1926 in Minot, North Dakota the grandson of Norwegian immigrants and the son of a Lutheran pastor.
He studied piano and clarinet, and sang in the children's choir at Olivet Lutheran Church in Fargo, North Dakota, his father's parish.
As a senior in high school, Moe took up the tenor saxophone so he could play jazz, a form of music he had a growing interest in, and which would affect future compositions such as the three-movement Psalm Concertato.
After graduation, Moe returned to Fargo and directed the choir at his home parish, Olivet Lutheran Church.
Moe became a lay minister and choir director at Hope Lutheran Church in Powell, Wyoming.
After completing the Ph.D. in 1961, Moe accepted a faculty position as director of choral organizations at the University of Iowa, where he would develop distinguished[according to whom?]
After retiring from academia to Sarasota, Florida, Moe served as the first director of that city's symphony chorus, Key Chorale, a position he held for 21 years.
marked by quartal and quintal harmony, mixed meter, quasi-tonality, and reiterated rhythms with slight variations (often syncopation).
Jan Bender composed "Variations on a theme by Daniel Moe: I lift up my eyes" for solo organ.