This lovely elegy, penned early in Weisgarber’s career, was a tribute to the principal clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1943 until his untimely death in February 1951. Called « stunning » and « strikingly beautiful » by Amelia Cardwell of the Greensboro Free Press, the Eclogue received its first performance, with the composer as soloist, on July 5, 1951 at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Originally scored for strings, flutes, oboe and timpani, Weisgarber expanded the orchestration in the fall of 1951 to include English horn, bassoon, 2 horns and percussion. This revised version was performed twice in the spring of 1952, first in Greensboro and then at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, this time with clarinetist Gilbert Norwood as soloist, the composer conducting. Weisgarber performed his clarinet and piano version of Eclogue with colleague Robert Darnell for broadcast on WUNC-TV on Nov. 13, 1959.

This edition was created by comparing the piano score with the revised orchestral score and a set of parts from a different (earlier or later?) edition. The editor hopes that the result is as close to Weisgarber’s final intentions for the work as possible.