The Mighty Handful, the group of composers, Mussorgsky among them, who gathered around the charismatic teacher and composer Mily Balakirev, fervently espoused the idea of a nationalist Russian music free from the taint of European Classicism and Romanticism. Needless to say, the Mighty Handful and its ideals were not wholeheartedly embraced by other composers or by most critics. One of the most implacably and virulently opposed critics was Alexander Famintsin, who did all he could to degrade and diminish the achievements and the ideals of the Mighty Handful.

Mussorgsky replied to Famintsin's criticism with his song The Classicist, subtitled A Musical Pamphlet, a nasty little parody of the Classical style. With both text and music by Mussorgsky, The Classicist, from December 30, 1867, is, as Mussorgsky intended it to be, a simple, clear, modest, polite, and elegant and simperingly insipid song. It is also quite funny.

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