Orlande de Lassus' five-voice setting of the tune Susanne un jour counts is one of his most famous chansons—and in fact, the popularity of the song during the latter half of the sixteenth century was such that a number of different vocal and instrumental arrangements by other composers survive as well. The song was published in a collection from 1567, during Lassus' long tenure as court musician for Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria. It takes as its text a poem by G. Guérault that tells the story of Susanna and the Elders, from the Apocrypha. As the story appears in the ancient texts, two elders frequenting the house of Joakim on business are so taken by the beauty of Susanna, Joakim's loyal and God-fearing wife, that they submit to carnal temptation and devise a plot to blackmail her into a romantic dalliance. Trapping her in a courtyard, they demand her cooperation or they will tell everyone they found her there in adultery with a young man—a sin punishable by death under Mosaic law. As the Apocryphal book and Guérault's poem recount, Susanna refuses, insisting that she would rather die publicly dishonored but innocent before God than lose her innocence and offend God by cooperating with them in order to save her public reputation and her life. Although it counts among his secular works, Lassus' chanson depicts Susanna's steadfastness with a strong sense of religiosity and reverence. The vocal lines carve out smooth, arching curves, with particular emphasis on the plaintive stepwise descents from the fifth to first scale degrees that conclude many phrases and the piece as a whole. (Focusing poetically and musically on Susanna's plight and her faith, both poem and chanson omit the happy ending, in which Daniel the prophet outsmarts the elders and saves Susanna's reputation.)

In addition to the many vocal and instrumental reincarnations this chanson enjoyed in the sixteenth century (including versions by Ferrabosco, Sweelinck, Byrd, Rognoni, and Bassano), Lassus himself revisited the piece, using it as the basis for a parody mass, or a mass that takes as its musical basis a preexisting (and non-liturgical) composition. Lassus' Missa Susanne un jour, which is based directly on the chanson model, was published in 1577.

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