he purpose of looking at various editions of the sonata is to underscore the opaque editorial layer through which double bassists have experienced this piece. Obviously, since this is a transcription, the end result of any process of editing and arranging will result in something that differs from the composer's original manuscript, and all editorial decisions are assumed to have subjective validity. For the most part, I will restrict my observations to editorial choices affecting phrasing and articulation as well as those that significantly alter the pitches or relationship of registers as originally composed. The bowings and fingerings indicated will be largely ignored, except where they appear to suggest the editor is calling for a significant departure from the composer's intent or where he demonstrates a particularly insightful (or the contrary) approach to a passage.

Schubert wrote many long slurs, some of which might actually have been intended as phrase marking rather than bowings. Even before taking into account the shorter bow-to-string ratio of the double bass, an editor who wants to make specific recommendations on how to execute certain passages, either for pedagogical reasons or out of a sense of being helpful, must grapple with the meanings of these markings.

Figure 18. A long slur or phrase marking from the first movement.

The passage cited previously is an obvious example of a phrase marking probably not meant to be played strictly as notated. However, it cannot be assumed that all of Schubert's slurs are only phrase markings. The problem faced by editors of the double bass editions lies in balancing the musical and practical considerations of the markings throughout. Rather than present a measure-by-measure comparison of how the various editions depart from Schubert's original markings, I believe it is of more interest to isolate a few examples and discuss them in some detail.

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