An important French near contemporary of Josquin, Mouton served in the chapels of Louis XII, Queen Anne of Brittany and her successor, Francis I. As official composer to the French royal court, he furnished music for both state occasions and other private celebrations of the royal family, such as weddings, birthdays and funerals. He was reportedly the favorite composer of Pope Leo X, who appointed him an apostolic notary and solicited him to compose for the papal choir. Mouton's style has been compared with that of Josquin, but Mouton cultivated a smooth, serene and full-sounding polyphony, eschewing the overt flashes of dramatic expression characteristic of Josquin. The German theorist Glareanus aptly characterised the composer's mellifluous style as "melody flowing in a supple thread".