Perhaps idealistic images of ‘Castaway’, ‘The Beach’ and ‘Desert Island Discs’ came rushing before I’d read Metronome. We have two people, not one, and who have not been washed up on the shore. We do have a beach and we also have the permission for only ‘one personal possession’. Along the way we ask whether such a life is sustainable. We know the well-worn phrase that danger hides in beauty and beauty in danger. The sense of beauty of the island’s rugged landscape becomes lost with everyday living, time, and experience. Still retro enough to look equally at home atop either an acoustic or digital piano, the plastic-bodied Piccolo is available in a vast array of bright and funky colours and has been designed to fit snugly into the crease of a piano’s music rest. It’s just very playable. To me, it’s the best tone that we’ve had from a live show to date”: Sterling By Music Man debuts affordable new signature StingRay for Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz

Metronome review – dystopian island drama that packs a punch

a b Alexander Bonus. "The Metronomic Performance Practice: A History of Rhythm, Metronomes, and the Mechanization of Musicality"; PhD thesis, May 2010. I ask many questions because this is what the book demands. I might use repeated expressions because these are techniques Watson uses. For a novel depicting twelve years’ isolation for two people on an island, it can read like a veritable a-z of underlying themes such as: adversity, attraction, challenge, climate change, communication, companionship, construction, control, death, destruction, determination, distraction, distance, equality, existence, family, fear, health, human hunger, intimacy, lies, love, oppression, pleasure, pressure, rebellion, relationships, revenge, sacrifice, safety, scams, secrets, solitude, synchronicity, time, etc. The author seems to want to say something without saying it but not even hinting at what it might be. Mysterious for no apparent reason. Metronome’s cover image shows something not too dissimilar to Hemingway’s iceberg theory: ‘Like an iceberg, the surface of the story, what is revealed to the reader, should be barely anything compared to what lies beneath.’ The iceberg and the island become intertwined here. This is literary fiction and an interesting idea, the world they come from is told in recollections and seems bleak and controlled. What are the pills for? What crime did they commit? These are the questions that keep you reading. They have been alone, fending for themselves, they are married but the love and trust they once had is now replaced with doubt and paranoia. There are hints of a changed world, will they choose to leave and find out what’s out there, is there anything?

a b Hoffman, Miles (1997). The NPR Classical Music Companion: Terms and Concepts from A to Z. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0618619450. Aina’s creator, Tom Watson, now billed by Bloomsbury as a literary star of 2022, is a graduate of University of East Anglia (UEA) in creative writing, where he won the Curtis Brown Prize. He was shortlisted with this debut, Metronome, for the Bridport Prize, and with another piece, ‘Magda’, at the Bristol Short Story Prize. Typically, the metronome is used as an additional tool to help maintain a steady tempo when creating music. You can also use it in live performances and recording studios to maintain the correct tempo as you play. Steven Mauk. "Make the Metronome Your Friend" (PDF). ithaca.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-06-16.

Metronome by Tom Watson review – fragile hopes of escape

Pyramid-style pendulum metronomes have just one job, at which they excel, and Wittner’s extensive range of models delivers just the right blend of antique style and modern build quality for those who prefer a traditional approach to timekeeping. A Timely Musical Discourse, or A Music Treatise from Lost Times, Part I (Current Musicology, (95)) by Alexander E. Bonus (March 2013) Art features heavily in the novel, sparked by the arrival of three Anthony Gormley sculptures at the UAE, which planted the seed in Watson’s mind, demonstrating a very organic and holistic process. In the way Gormley chose those precise positions and locations at the University – what does that tell us – Watson as a verbal artist, places his characters where he chooses. The connection to the sculptures is not obvious at first but once the connection is made, coupled with Whitney’s own artworks, it is explosive. I hope the sculptor himself has a copy of the book. A kind of metronome was among the inventions of Andalusian polymath Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887). In 1815, German inventor Johann Maelzel patented his mechanical, wind-up metronome as a tool for musicians, under the title "Instrument/Machine for the Improvement of all Musical Performance, called Metronome". [4] In the 20th century, electronic metronomes and software metronomes were invented. Lewis also says in his book that increasing sensitivity to rhythm is essential to develop greater precision of timing and a clearer sense of the passage of musical time—relative to which musicians can then use expressive, natural and fluid rhythms, with as much rubato and tempo variance as they wish for. Lewis' book states:This type of metronome is made of wood or plastic. Its primary purpose is to provide a visual indication of the beat. The only difference between this type of metronome and the electronic version is that it does not contain any electronics. Instead, it relies solely on mechanical parts. Therefore, it is more durable than electronic versions.