Plate I
One tune, many homes
Mo Li Hua is Chinese, Arirang Korean, Auld Lang Syne Scottish, Amazing Grace American and Akatombo Japanese. Written out, all five use the same five notes: do re mi sol la. Move a tune into another culture's scale and listen for what stays put. Some homes turn out to be twins: Ethiopia's ambassel and Japan's in scale share every note.
A Play it in
B Hold it up against
Plate II
Same mode, many names
Traditions thousands of kilometres apart landed on the same seven-note sets and named them differently. Pick a mode to hear it and see every name it goes by.
Plate III
Twelve notes, sixty thousand songs a day
In 2022 Ed Sheeran argued that pop runs on only so many notes and very few chords, so songs are bound to bump into each other. Here is that argument, taken apart and made playable.
Plate IV
Record DNA
Pick two recordings from different decades or different places. We listen to each 30 second preview and draw its fingerprint: how fast, how bright, how loud over time, and which notes it leans on.
Tempo, key and brightness are estimates from a short clip. Your ears outrank our maths.