Coming Up
Fact: Covering The Sofa by Skeet – Andreas Rocha 01:50
Main Fiction: The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942 by Kim Stanley Robinson 05:20
Fact: Looking Back at Genre History by Amy H Sturgis 51:30
Narrator – Diane Severson
I enjoyed the reading. Was there any genre componant?
I found the main fiction hard to listen to. Every time the story mentioned Beethoven’s 9th, it would remind me of what a great piece it is, so I would switch over and listen to a movement or two before coming back to the story.
Took quite a while to finish the episode that way 
I too liked the story and was hoping for a little snippet of each of the movements as they were being described – we got this for the first movement but not the others. Just like Nick, I did not notice any SFnal elements to the story – did anyone else?
Not, you understand, that I’m going to get all sniffy about the lack of zap guns.
Thanks for the kind comments!
The only even remotely genre element would be the Timpanist’s father channeling his dead truck mate’s mechanic’s abilities. But Robinson told me it’s not science fictional.
I would’ve loved to include more of the music, but you know, those pesky copyright laws.
It’s a shame there aren’t more Public Domain (or Creative Commons) recordings you could have used, Diane.
Vaguely surprised TBH that the recording in question wasn’t in the public domain by now. Wasn’t Cliff Richard getting all upset because there was only a 50 year copyright on recordings and therefore his earliest works were coming into the public domain? And I’m pretty sure Bethoven has been dead for more than 70 years.
It was the sort of story that struck me as potentially having some terribly clever alternate history elements, which someone who really knew the subject would appreciate and would sail over everybody else’s heads.
Yeah, copyright is a complicated thing. The written music by Beethoven is in the public domain, meaning if I wanted to make my own score edition of Symphony No. 9 I could do so and wouldn’t have to pay anyone any royalties. However, making a recording using someone else’s copyrighted edition is another story. Especially here in Germany the laws regarding recordings are extremely broad and rigid. And it includes using other people’s recordings for things like podcasts. The one I used was of a concert in 1942 that’s up on YouTube. I don’t have any idea what the copyright status is, so I only used a short bit of it.
Not to mention that adding music to a podcast makes it about twice the work! And I’m afraid I just didn’t have the time to research it and add more. Sorry guys! As much as I would’ve liked the end product. The BeerMan’s solution is a good one I think! Don’t be so lazy!!!! 
Oh, and Nick, nothing sailed over your head. Not in this case, anyway!
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