Bary Quarter

Sir Ages

Harpsichord

Grongolwack

Bary Quarter was a Fickolean songwriter, composer and epicotra writer, most famous for his symphonies 1 through 46, 'Symphony Dolicini', 'Joy Quartet' and 'Attack melody', as well as his epicotras, 'Too alive to die', 'The waiting woman', 'Gospel' and 'Weaponised psychology', through which he would play the piano unaccompanied, taking brief interludes to talk to the audience.

Arguably the founder of 'complicado' music and 'musical epicotra', Quarter had an immeasurable influence of Fickolean music and music in general, across the KC.

Aside gathering a hitherto unparalleled cultural fame and notoriety and wealth from this, Quarter also gained a reputation for excessive partying and addiction to drugs, notably, pillowchubb and big-prump.

Growing up in Drainstown, later Ficko City, Quarter was at the centre of wealth, commerce and culture in Ficko from birth. Achieving success due to his musical abilities, Quarter began playing for selected audiences from the age of 13, then moving on to playing in esteemed clubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and so on.

Quarter went on to write numerous symphonies and epicotras during his artistic awakening, selling out vast halls and making some of the first mass-produced records in Fickolean history. This continued for the rest of his life, until his death by drug overdose and alcohol poisoning in 1456 (Mt). His works provide an insight into his chronic depression and obsession with death and his own mortality.

## Life and Career

### Early Life

Quarter was born in 1424 (Mt) in Drainstown, then a city and later part of Ficko City, which formed not long before Quarter's death. Both his parents were relatively unsuccessful writers, with only one published novel between them; a book of poems titled 'Quarter & Porter Poetry'. Due to his parents persistance in writing and lack of success in this regard, Quarter grew up with very little money, however, when he began to show promise in piano playing from a young age, he became personally wealthy, playing for selected audiences such as the Geblerra of Drainstown and his family.

Quarter travelled all around Drainstown, and even to Jakestown and Vorren to play for aristocrats at private events and parties, acquiring attention due to his youth and skill combined, as well as his occasional jokes between performances.

### Recruitment (1440-1446)

When he was 16, Quarter was recruited by the Donaldossen Family Company to play in selected venues; opening at shows, playing in esteemed bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs, and in emporiums, during ceremonies, et cetera. With the money he acquired from this occupation, he was able to buy more musical equipment and move out. It was at this time that he began to become an alcoholic, too, getting free drinks at the venues and institutions he played at.

### Solo Career (1446-1456)

When Quarter was 22, he quit officially quit the Donaldossen Family Company to pursue his solo career. He had already been working on numerous solo projects and had written and performed his first 16 symphonies, and had written an epicotra. At this time, Quarter began to produce more symphonies, and epicotras which sold out large epicotra halls and stadiums. Quarter began advertising for his shows, and people came from all over Ficko City and the Alifcan Empire to see them. Ticket prices for showings of Quarter's symphonies went up.

Quarter's career took off to its zenith when he began mass-producing his symphonies on records and exclusively performing his epicotras live. The mass-production involved creating moulds of records and recreating them on large scales, as well as recording his recordings multiple times to create multiple different versions of different symphonies, quartets, and ballads. This was one of the first instances of record mass-production, and was done through the 'Bary Quarter Company', which Quarter set up with the help of his friend Jobe Marz. The company brought Quarter and Marz large profits, and went on to manage Quarter's musical rights after his death, though his music was in the public domain following 1958 (Mt). (The company primarily defended against instances of plagiarism).

Bary Quarter is commonly credited for having been one of the first pioneers and founders of 'musical epicotra', whereby he would read his poetry in between delivering music pieces conveying mood and scene. Towards the end of his life, Bary Quarter's music, and especially his epicotras, such as 'The Waiting Woman' (1452) and 'Weaponised Psychology' (1456), both about women suffering from extra-marital affairs and disloyalty, were heavily influenced by his deep depression at the time.

### Addiction

From the age of 15, Bary Quarter was frequently consuming alcohol, usually in order to reduce anxiety before performing in front of an audience. From the age of 17, Bary had developed a fully-blown alcohol addiction and was reported to the police twice within the year for being a public nuisance, and was admitted to the hospital numerous more times for over-drinking. In his biography of Quarter's life, *'Bary Quarter: The lonesome child in the shell',* author Allen Pichensfeld wrote:

> Quarter would drink alcohol every night, either from his home collection, made up of gifts received from those he played for, or in bars, clubs and restaurants in which guests would buy him free drinks. On more than one occasion Quarter passed out in the presence of those he was playing for and/or was completely intoxicated during playing, however this only served to amuse his guests, and seemingly did not diminish his abilities.
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In 1446, Quarter began to use and abuse pillowchubb and other strong psychoactive substances, which he acquired from both street gangs and from local vendors. At the time, the existence of such drugs was relatively unknown, and the only way of acquiring such substances was through illicit means. Quarter became renowned for doing almost lethal doses of pillowchubb before shows and at parties, attended by many others. Of Quarter's drug use, Pichensfeld wrote:

> Quarter could acquire drugs from anywhere and everywhere; he was the most culturally influential Fickolean alive at that time excluding royalty and perhaps some of the great artists of the period. There was not a soul that didn't want to party with Bary, and when you partied with Bary, he was almost always high. Quarter would do almost lethal doses of multiple different drugs at once, even on his own. Many times his friends and family members called the police in the fears that he would die if he continued. Most people, however, never sought to curb Bary's addiction.
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Bary Quarter dabbled in many different drugs, however he only ingested pure roziopiazepine on one occassion, during which he claimed to have had 'an awakening' and promised to close friends to become sober. Doctors treating Quarter after the event deduced that he was lucky not to have been put into a coma, but did incur brain damage to his frontal lobe leaving him less capable of showing restraint.

Ultimately, Quarter died in 1456 (Mt) after a drug overdose on pillowchubb, meadowchubb, big-prump and flat-prump. Police reports indicate he had also drunk a lethal dose of alcohol, enough to give him alcohol poisoning. It is unclear if his death was a suicide attempt, although his use of drugs is commonly considered to be his way of self-medicating a depression that had lasted from his youth through till his death at the age of 32.

### Lifestyle

Though Bary's lifestyle primarily revolved around his use of psychoactive substances, he was also known for hosting intense and lavish parties at his home in Ficko City, as well as in clubs throughout the city. Guests including royalty, artists like Tom Yaknado and Astha Glaihora, musicians Billy Janwag and Gloria Poopsodge, psychologists and philosophers such as Plagnaro, Norman Orange and the member of the Council of Academics Jowa-Kare were often in attendance.

In most parties, Quarter would play music to an incredible degree of talent and skill despite being greatly intoxicated. He would also order an abundance of drugs, which according to the testimony of Bitcho Raychel in his pre-trial in 1450, could 'sedate a squadlith'.

In one instance, Quarter invited over 1,000 people to his residence in Ficko City, not all of whom could be contained in his building, causing the neighbouring wall to be knocked down by Quarter and friends and the party to spill into the house next door whilst his neighbours were sleeping. According to Quarter himself, they were asleep even as people came through the wall into their house.

On another occassion, which was reported by the Drainstown Outlet newspaper, Quarter caused a huge explosion by tossing ammonium nitrate onto a bonfire created by him and friends. The party at which this took place allegedly lasted 26 days, during which time Quarter was in a constant state of intoxication. The party transcended into a meeting of intellectuals, at which two members of the Council of Academics, as well as three Ficko City judges and the former Mayor of Jakestown were present. The end result was the creation of an elite intellectual group of the seven, as well as six more individuals, all of whom attended later events.

Quarter's parties were so influential that numerous local artists depicted the events at his parties, increasing the value of the art by an accompanying story. As well as this, numerous established artists, such as Astha Glaihora, depicted others at the party, including Norman Orange and other, unknown individuals.

At such parties, Quarter was known to become incredibly stimulated by the volume of drugs he had ingested, and would often show violent and aggressive outbursts, likely as a way to vent his inner depression. For example, in one occasion he destroyed his entire vintage antique record collection, record by record. He also shot himself in the toe with a portable cannon, leaving him without most of his foot, something he did not report or seek medical attention for for over 20 days. He would often threaten to kill himself during his parties, and would beat himself and others using instruments. On another occasion, he hired a team of martial artists to come to his house and beat him almost to death. None of the virtually hundreds of guests were able to stop the martial artists, all of whom were highly skilled.