Book Review: Dvorak (Life & Times) by Kurt Honolka

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Book Review: Dvorak (Life & Times) by Kurt Honolka
Introduction 
Dvorak (Life & Times) by Kurt Honolka is a book talking about a man, who was born and grew up in Czech, later becoming the composer of romantic music. Antonin Leopaold Dvorak as the main character was born in September 8, 1841 and lived up to 1st May 1904, who received his early education in Czech Republic. According to the author (Kurt Honolka), Antonin Dvorak composed romantic music, through employing idioms of folk music of Moravia that also included his native Bohemia. The life history and challenges faced by the main character are analyzed in details, hence enabling the understanding of which real this main character is. 
Antonin Dvorak as the main character in this book ignores calls from his father (Frantisek Dvorak) to be a butcher and decides to follow his dream of in music. The challenges review by the author in this book about Dvorak includes growth in music, challenges of finances, respect and recognition among many more issues.  In the book, the author writes, “By the time he was only eighteen years old, Dvorak became a full time musician. He made only $7.50 a month, thus constant need to supplement his income pushed him to begin teaching piano lessons.” This quote is used by the author to exactly imply the challenge of payments that the music composers face.
The author then goes to analyze the love life of the main character (Dvorak) and how he ended up moving to New York in pursuit of better paying terms. The idea that the author is trying to imply here is that success does not come out easily, and how exactly it relates to love. For instance, the author writes, “He originally fell in love with his pupil Josefina Cermakova, for whom he composed Cypress Trees, but she never returned his love, hence ended up marrying another man.” From this quote, is likely that the main character was struggling financially, something that hindered Josephina from loving him back, hence marrying another man, who was stable financially by then. Immediately after getting a high paying job at the church area, “Dvorak married Josephina’s younger sister, Anna, of whom they had nine children, three of whom died during infancy.” This depicts how financial freedom is related to finding happiness in marriage (Honolka 64). 
Another aspect of challenge in life is depicted in this book through the way the main character is frustrated financially. Dvorak has disputes on his contracts about the unsettled salaries in his contracts, something that later made him leave New York back to his hometown, never to return. The author writes, “However, problems with Mrs. Thurber about his salary, together with increasing recognition in Europe – he had been made an honorary member of the Gasellschaft der Musikfraunde in Viena”, this implies how music is totally parallel form being recognized.  Dvorak is known to many and recognized, and in fact travels to many countries, including several visits to London and Moscow, but he still has financial issues with his employer.   
The author has succeeded in his of relaying the grievances faced by people in music industry. This message is clearly understood in the way of which the author writes about Dvorak. He uses a consistent flow of ideas, starting from the character’s birth, education, career and later life. All these ideas are arranged in one chapter after another, which makes it less complicated to understand. The author’s work also depicts Dvorak to have some influence in the Czech folk music, in terms of elements, for example rhythms and melodic shapes. 
In as much as there is consistency and flow of history of the main character, there is inconsistency in the numbering of his work. For instance, Dvorak’s work was given opus numbers, which did not fully bear the logical relationship towards the order of which they were written or published. The author writes, “Dvorak provided new works with lower number opus deliberately, in order to sell them outside contract obligations to other publishers.” This implies that the music composed at various time intervals would be produced and published at different time intervals, hence did not simply represent the character’s brand new work at that particular moment.     
There is also some confusion in the manner of which the author numbers the symphonies in this book. At first instance, these symphonies were numbered by the order of their publications, but not the order of composition. The first four symphonies to be composed were published last. Then the last five symphonies that the main character (Dvorak) composed were not really published according to the order of their composition. This will eventually make the reader confused, hence calling for much attention when reading the book in order to understand the real flow of ideas (Wyburd 35).
The book however shows some concept of biasness in the way it ad