The Weaver was commissioned by the CBC for its fiftieth anniversary. Written in 1986, it received its world première on December 7 of that year in London's Wigmore Hall. It was recently recorded by Mark Dubois, tenor, Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet, and Patricia Parr, piano for Centredisc to be released in the fall of 1989.

The Weaver is based on a poem of the same title by Canadian Poet Archibald Lampman (1861-1899) whose work Morawetz particularly admires. It offers a tremendous amount of dramatic content and the union of music and text is extremely close-knit. The work contains several contrasting elements - the obsessive weaving movement which begins the work, the desperate pleas of his wife, in which section we hear the warlike sounds of trumpets and trombones signalling the approaching enemy, and the weaver's deeply religious response. In the dramatic climax of the piece, the weaver is killed and the work then ends with the poet's statement that he imagines that in some distant land in the hereafter the weaver is weaving still. The final sentence, recalling the tone of the religious section is repeated over and over until the end of the piece.

This is the only work which Morawetz has written for voice, piano and another instrument. The use of the clarinet was especially important in conveying the various images and moods of the piece as well as acting as a source of contrast.