Two of Mussorgsky's closest women friends were the Opochinina sisters, Alexandra and Nadezhda. Alexandra was a passionate and strong-willed soprano, while Nadezhda was a more reserved and tender pianist. In the late 1860s and early 1870s Mussorgsky lived in their home in St. Petersburg, and over that time he dedicated many of his songs to them.

One of the few joint dedications was The Magpie, of August 26, 1867. Setting two poems by Pushkin merged into one text, "A Chattering Magpie" and "Little Bells Tinkle," Mussorgsky's music is in the folkish idiom he had been exploring since his breakthrough song O Darling Savishna! of 1866. Like the other songs he had already composed in this genre, O You Drunken Sot and The Seminarist, The Magpie features a simple melodic pattern which is extended through nearly the entire song. Yet Mussorgsky is able to alter and manipulate the pattern so that the song is motivically unified without becoming musically tedious.

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