In the nineteenth century, before the invention of the phonograph, arrangement for the piano was the principal means of disseminating orchestral and operatic music. It was the primary way an amateur or often even a professional was able to learn and study music that may have been heard only once or twice in concert. Liszt made many such transcriptions, such as those for the Beethoven Symphonies, where the primary goal was to reproduce the original as closely as possible without concern for pianistic effectiveness. Occasionally, though, such a transcription transcends its original purpose and enters the concert repertoire as a piece in its own right. Liszt's transcription of Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture is one such. Although Liszt preserved the original overture's structure and musical continuity, he reformulated the orchestral textures in a way that transcends mere transcription, and makes them pianistically viable and effective. Perhaps this was as an expedient, since Wagner's textures are more elaborate than Beethoven's, for instance, and do not lend themselves to literal transcription for piano. It was also a result of Liszt's experiments with pianistic sonority, as in the Transcendental Etudes, where he attempted to replicate orchestral effects at the keyboard. Nevertheless, the result is a version of the original that can stand up as a concert repertory piece rather than as a novelty.

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