The renaissance English composer William Byrd (1543-1623) wrote a set of eight variations on The Maidens Song, a well-known melody of the time. Byrd probably composed this work early in his career, though precise dating of keyboard composition is extremely difficult

Byrd uses a different approach in this work compared to his variations on Sellingers Round or the Gipsies Round. He treats the melody almost as if it were a cantus firmus in one of his motets, avoiding decoration of the melody and relying on the other voices for interest. Coupled with a static number of parts in individual variations, this causes a smooth polyphony more reminiscent of a motet or consort fantasia than a set of keyboard variations. An increasingly complexity is almost Byrd's only acknowledgement of the genre for which he is writing.

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