In a dynamic urtext – and mUltimate Chopin may surely be considered as such – the user is able to closely follow the editorial process and is given the opportunity to make his or her own decisions related for instance to the choice of variants on the basis of photocopied source materials. The system has been designed so as to enable viewing, analysing and comparing sources and it also offers instant access to commentaries about all the problematic parts of the examined fragment of the score. The text proposed by the editors (convergent with the text of the National Edition) is available as a recommended option, but not the only one. This helps eliminate certain limitations typical for traditional printed urtexts, such as:
- impossibility to take into account all the authentic versions (this is especially bothersome in case of e.g. slurring), as the printed text offering all the variants would be illegible;
- the necessity, justified by the need to transmit the composer’s invention as fully as possible, to give several versions (variants) of certain fragments (the mUltimate project is unique in that respect, as it offers many variants that are not normally presented next to one another in a single score);
- the resulting necessity to make editorial choices that in many instances cannot be fully objective.
The edited musical text (e.g. one of the versions proposed in the National Edition) can be printed by the user.
