Joni Greene (b. 1981) is an American composer based in Austin, Texas. She has written a wide variety of music for a range of ensembles, from bands and orchestras to chamber groups and operas. Trained at Indiana University (BM and MM degrees), her principal teachers included Michael Gandolfi, Sven-David Sandstrom, Kevin Puts, Don Freund, David Dzubay, Claude Baker, and Rafael Hernandez. Her music has been performed extensively, and has won her several awards, notably in the Frank Ticheli Composition Contest. Greene emphasizes instrumental color and its transitions in her wind band music, with melodies and textures often passed between sections. Some of this approach emerges naturally from her synesthesia. Learn more about her and her music at her website, the Wind Repertory Project, and the Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music. Also, check her out on the One Track podcast.

Greene gives an extensive introduction to Moonscape Awakening, to which I’ve added some links:

Moonscape Awakening came to life not long ago during the Oregon Bach Festival. During the festival I was approached by band director, James Geiger, who was looking to commission a work for his band at West Laurens High School in Dublin, Georgia. Mr. Geiger specifically asked for a work in the spirit of my choral piece, Autumn Reflections, which focuses on warm colors and scenic imagery.

Thus the inspiration for Moonscape Awakening begins with the presentation of color and texture within the choirs of the wind ensemble. The title is descriptive of a shimmering moon that slowly rises and bursts into an awakening of full presence and intensity. The process of progression to the moon’s zenith is presented musically as a slow building of melody, texture, note duration, and range. The culmination of these elements reaches an apex about halfway through the work. An arch form is then revealed as the music slowly dissipates in texture and rhythmic intensity, signifying a weakening of the moon’s presence.

Moonscape Awakening comprises several layered melodic strands. The work’s motivic fragments are derived from a solo in the bass clarinet. The full presentation of this main theme is embedded at several points in the work and serves as a melodic echo throughout. Along with the theme’s motivic fragments, rising flourishes of sixteenth-notes add to the progression of intensity and arrival. After the apex, a journey of releasing tension begins through a spinning out of melodic ideas in the brass and woodwind choirs. The work comes to a close after a final resonating chord with the return of the solo flute.

Moonscape Awakening received its premiere on May 6, 2008 by the West Laurens Wind Ensemble, conducted by James Geiger.

Here it is in live performance:

See more at Greene’s website, HeBu, a score preview at Issuu, J. W. Pepper, and the Wind Repertory Project.