Though Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck performed improvisations on the keyboard daily for many years in Amsterdam, we only have very scant traces of his actual surviving music. Fewer than 100 pieces survive, and nearly all are handwritten copies by other people. This unfortunately leads to the question of authenticity: how certain can anyone be that a given piece is actually Sweelinck's music? The situation is complicated by the fact that sometimes other musicians, such as Sweelinck's student Samuel Scheidt, contributed "guest" variations to the middle of a group of Sweelinck's works. (Master and pupil even made a set of variations completely in alternation, those on the "Pavana hispanica.") Scheidt has also been suggested as the composer of the variations on the so-called "Balletto del granduca," instead of Sweelinck. Whether these variations came from the teacher or the student—or both in alternation—we can still enjoy what wit and invention they display.

The "Balletto" (Little dance of the Grand Duke) that forms the basis for these variations offers the improviser a lot of leeway. It consists of a string of short and clearly cut musical phrases, with a basically chordal texture (begging for embellishment), and coming to rest on cadences on a large number of contrasting pitches. The first "variation" sets out the theme in this case, with little in the way of ornamentation. The second variation sets a more florid melody over the same harmonic bass that was established in the first; the third reverses the procedure, with a running bass line as an undercurrent to the simple chordal upper voices. In both cases, however, the composer adds more rhythmic interest to the other voices, as well, in the twofold concluding phrase. In the fourth variation, the running melodic voice moves consistently at twice the speed, and the fifth and final variation deploys two ornamental lines. Unfortunately, they allow some infelicities in the voice-leading to be a bit more prevalent; perhaps these were "guest" variations after all.

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