Donald Moffitt

writer
Short Story

The Man Who Was Beethoven

  • by Donald Moffitt
  • Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1972

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  • Undetermined
  • Undetermined Time Travel
Short Story

The Beethoven Affair


In a world where music companies use time travel to plumb the past for new pop hits, junior account executive Lester Krieg (no relation to my favorite Seattle Seahawk quarterback) comes up with the idea of getting Beethoven to write a tenth symphony—regardless of the cost.
Everybody and his brother Jake knows that Beethoven wrote nine symphonies and stopped there. And even the dimmest of music lovers has wish fulfillment fantasies about what a tenth would have sounded like.
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  • Eloi Honorable Mention
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

The Beethoven Project


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  • Undetermined
  • Undetermined Time Travel
Short Story

The Affair of the Phlegmish Master


Given the title, I figured I might run into comedy or puns, but that wasn’t the case for this story of Dutch historian and translator Peter Van Gaas who travels back to an alternative timeline with a billionaire to commission a Vermeer portrait of the billionaire’s wife while trying not to run afoul of the thug hired by those who have a financial interest in not seeing more works of art from past masters.
Harry’s going to upset a multibillion dollar applecart. I don’t know what strings he pulled to get an import license for a priceless artifact from another timeline, but it’s not going to be worth what he thinks.
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  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Short Story

A Snitch in Time


In the same world as the Beethoven and Vermeer affairs, rogue policeman Francis Patrick Delehanty uses his own resources to travel back to the scene of the first homicide that he dealt with as a rookie cop.
Have you thought this through, Lieutenant? You see a murder in progress. You’re a cop. Do you try to stop it? But you’re not a cop in that timeline, are you? Your lieutenant’s badge is no good there. Are you acting extra-legally? The only badge around belongs to a rookie cop name Delehanty who doesn’t have a clue about what’s going down. And what if you don’t try to stop it? Are you culpable? In that timeline or this one?
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  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel