MusEDLab / Active collection
Explore music through paths, cards and layers.
A collection of tools for exploring and shaping music. Start with the original Variation Playgrounds, created with the New York Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Visit the original collection and its history →
Cards / New York Philharmonic
Benjamin Britten
Choose an instrument, then explore the theme through cards for tempo, major and minor, dynamics, and decoration.
Original app online · Interface checked
Open Britten playground ↗
Paths / New York Philharmonic
Felix Mendelssohn
Move through a musical landscape to explore density, register, and dynamics. Try a different route and compare.
Original app online · Interface checked
Open Mendelssohn playground ↗
Layers / New York Philharmonic
Antonín Dvořák
Choose a journey, then bring musical themes into the foreground or background. Explore the Begin, Complete, Remix, and Create Your Own options.
Original app online · Interface checked
Open Dvořák playground ↗
Paths / New York Philharmonic
Jean Sibelius
Explore a path between simple and complex rhythms, quiet and loud dynamics, and low and high registers.
Original app online · Interface checked
Open Sibelius playground ↗
Interactive map / New York Philharmonic
Music, places, and people
Start the map and explore Harlem locations through music, video, and play-along activities.
Original map online · Repair in progress
Open Harlem map ↗
Paths / Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Explore how musical choices change the mood. Move between happy and sad, silly and scary, and different levels of intensity.
Original app online · Interface checked
Open Happy, Sad, Silly, Scary ↗
The six opening interfaces and direct app links were checked on 16 October 2026. The five older card, path, and layer apps report a problem connecting to their session service. Saving and historical sessions are not verified; full audio playback and physical tablet use have not been tested in this collection review. Harlem’s app repair is in progress.
These links open the original MusEDLab-hosted apps. They do not depend on the former Philharmonic introduction pages, and listing an app here does not mean every feature has been restored.
The New York Philharmonic commissioned the original variation-play platforms for its Young People’s Concerts Play! initiative. Britten, Mendelssohn, Dvořák, and Sibelius explore variation through cards, paths, and layers. The Harlem Renaissance map connects musical activities with places and people.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra commissioned Happy, Sad, Silly, Scary for its classroom work. The original apps retain their institutional credits and visual identities.
Collection scope: five apps found in the existing Variation Playgrounds deployment, plus the separately hosted Harlem Renaissance map. Screenshots show the original opening interfaces; recordings and other app media remain at their existing hosts.
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