Liszt's arrangements of Wagner's works total seven pieces from Tannhäuser and Lohengrin. Six of these were completed between 1849 and 1854, and all are deeply connected to Liszt's efforts as Kapellmeister in Weimar to popularize Wagner's works. That is, alongside numerous opera performances, exemplified by the Weimar premiere of Tannhäuser on February 24, 1849, and the complete premiere of Lohengrin on August 28, 1850, and magazine articles introducing the operas' stories, these piano arrangements also played a significant role in popularizing the original works.

However, "Pilgrims' Chorus" was undertaken not in the early 1850s when such activities were flourishing, but in 1861, after Liszt had already resigned as Kapellmeister. Its title corresponds to the chorus scene of pilgrims returning from Rome in Act 3, Scene 1 of Tannhäuser, but it actually corresponds to the opera's Overture (measures 1-83). Liszt revisited a section that overlapped with his "Tannhäuser Overture," which he had completed and published in 1849.

The arrangement from the Overture titled "Pilgrims' Chorus" was published by Siegel in Leipzig in 1865, and likely also by Flaxland in Paris in the same year. The title page of the Siegel edition states "Paraphrase." (Incidentally, the publisher of "Tannhäuser Overture" was C. F. Meser in Dresden, and its first edition also stated "Paraphrase." Considering that both of these arrangements are written in a style quite contrary to the "paraphrase" generally understood today as a free and brilliant concert arrangement, and that Liszt himself applied the term "piano score" – a type of arrangement whose motto is fidelity to the original in every minute detail – to "Tannhäuser Overture," the possibility that the term "Paraphrase" on the first editions of both arrangements originated from the publisher rather than Liszt himself cannot be excluded.) The differences from the "Tannhäuser Overture" arrangement of 12 years prior are not very significant. However, numerous subtle differences, such as the slurring, stem direction, dynamics, and accents, indicate that "Pilgrims' Chorus" was clearly undertaken anew at a different time. Furthermore, unlike the "Overture," which emphasizes the lower register for a richer sound, "Pilgrims' Chorus" is written in a style highly suitable for piano performance, giving the impression of a piece originally composed for piano rather than an arrangement of an orchestral work. Another significant difference from the earlier undertaking 12 years prior is the inclusion of "Ossia" passages, which were not present in the "Overture" that demanded extremely advanced performance skills, allowing for simplified performance options.

Regardless of the difficulty of performance technique, Liszt presents two types of endings in the postlude from measure 84:

• ① A melodic progression and chords in the lower register, consisting of 23 measures.
• ② Chords in the upper register, consisting of 4 measures.