The cmr filter marks conspicuous melodic repetitions, particularly for use with vocal music from the Renaissance.

Options

A “Conspicuous Melodic Repetition” is defined as the repetition of a pitch at least three times within six whole notes’ duration. One of the repeated pitches must be a local melodic high (or low) note and be either syncopated or approached by a leap. The other repeated notes must be at least metrically accented.

Local melodic maximums

Identifying local high notes is the first step in identifying a CMR. These local maximum are defined as having a higher pitch than the note immediately preceding or following the peak note. In the example below, green notes mark local maximums:

The -l option can be added to highlight the local maximum pitches, while the -L option can be used to mark only the local maximum pitches without further analysis to identify CMRs.

Syncopation or leaps

The next criteria to identify a CMR is that a local maximum must be additionally accentuated by either being syncopated or preceded by a leap—a melodic interval greater than a second.

leaps

The -e or -E option highlights leaps preceding local maximum pitches.

syncopations