The piano transcription was one of the main ways of spreading operatic music outside the confines of the theater during the Romantic era. Of all who had produced operatic paraphrases, transcriptions, fantasias, and the like, Franz Liszt, the greatest pianist of the age, was unsurpassed. His treatments of opera range from transcriptions (direct and literal placement of the original music into keyboard form) to free fantasias. These are basically new compositions that use themes from the opera. This powerful and virtuosic twenty-minute piece is a major example.

Giacomo Meyerbeer was one of the most popular operatic composers during the second quarter of the 19th Century. He virtually invented the genre of the historical opera; his tend to be very large-scale, grand specatacles. He was also assiduous in researching the music of the times and places of his music, seeking fidelity to historical truth to an unusual degree for his time. In this tale concerning the clash between French Catholics and Protestants (leading to the St. Bartholomew's Eve massacred of 1572), Meyerbeer studied actual Psalters and instrumental music of the time. He also introduced the Jewish hymn of thanksgiving on Sabbath eve, the "Yigdal," in the Night Watchman theme.

Meyerbeer was particularly popular for his imaginative mastery of orchestral color. Liszt brilliantly captures this quality in this version. The work also shows another characteristic of Liszt's: His penchant for revising his music. As the headnote indicates, there were three versions. The parenthetical remark disavowing the earlier two versions is Liszt's.

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