The Transcriptions by Stuart Sankey and David Walter

he edition by Stuart Sankey is probably the most familiar edition of the sonata to double bassists in the United States. There appear to be two versions of this edition. In the earlier version, the tuning of the first movement is the traditional solo tuning (A-E-B-F-sharp), whereas the tuning indicated for the second movement is A-E-B-E. In the later version, the tuning for the entire piece is marked with the latter tuning. Since the two editions appear identical except for a few passages in the first movement altered to take into account the low E string, I will restrict my comments to the latest version. The transcription by David Walter is newer than the one by Sankey and probably less well known.

Sankey has taken the practical step of breaking up many of the long slurs that appear in the original. However, he has a predilection for adding syncopations to the phrasing that are not evident in Schubert's manuscript.

Schubert

Sankey

Schubert

Sankey

Figure 19. Changes to phrasing that appear to attempt to disguise shifts into or out of thumb position.

Other changes have dubious technical rationale, relying on the notion that changes in bow direction can be masked by shifting these changes off the beat. This trick, although effective in some cases, tends to add unintended syncopations to what is an otherwise square phrase structure.

Schubert

Sankey

Schubert

Sankey

Figure 20. Some of the changes to Schubert's markings.

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