A c orpus analysis of common-practice themes shows that, when an intervallic pattern is repeated with one changed interval, the changed interval tends to be larger in the second instance of the pattern than in the first; the analysis also shows that the second instance of an intervallic pattern tends to contain more chromaticism than the first. An explanation is offered for these phenomena, using the theory of uniform infor- mation density. This theory states that communication is optimal when the density of information (the nega- tive log of probability) maintains a consistent, moderate level. The repetition of a pattern of intervals is (in some circumstances, at least) highly probable; in some cases, the information density of such repetitions may be undesirably low. The composer can balance this low information by injecting a high-information (i.e., low- probability) element into the repetition such as a large interval or a chromatic note. A perceptual model is proposed, showing how the probabilities of intervals, scale degrees, and repetition might be calculated and combined. consider the melodies shown in Example 1. These five melodies all have several things in common. First and most obviously, each one involves a melodic pattern that is repeated in some way (marked with brackets above the score). In each case, the pattern is repeated at a different pitch level from the original, but the repetition maintains the same rhythm and, for the most part, the same pattern of generic intervals (i.e., intervals measured in steps on the staff). However, the pattern is not simply shifted along the underlying scale; in each case, it is slightly altered in some way. In the first melody, for example, a sixth in the first instance of the pattern (E ♭ 4-C5) is changed to an octave in the second instance (F4-F5); similarly, in the third, fourth, and fifth melodies, an interval in the first pattern instance is replaced by a larger generic interval in the second instance. Other changes involve the addition of chromaticism: in the second and fifth melodies, diatonic scale degrees in the first instance of the pattern are replaced by chromatic degrees in the second instance. There is another, more abstract commonality across these melodies that is perhaps less obvious than those mentioned above. Large intervals are I am grateful to David Huron for making available to me his Humdrum encoding of the Barlow and Morgenstern corpus.