Scherzo for Piano was composed in 1946 and is one of the earliest piano works by Morawetz. It received its first public performance by the famous Czech pianist Rudolf Firkusny in Toronto's Massey Hall on April 24, 1950. Due to its strong and exciting rhythmic drive it soon became one of the most frequently performed Canadian compositions. It was recorded on disc by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1954 with the composer at the piano. Later it was also recorded by the Canadian pianist Sheila Henig who played it on her tour of several European countries and also in the U.S.A. in Washington where the work was highly praised by the music critic Paul Hume of the Washington Post.

The title, Scherzo, is not used here to indicate a happy mood but rather in a dramatic sense, as in some of the later scherzos by Beethoven. The form of the composition is A-B-A (fast, slow, fast) followed by a short coda.