Pang Ngam

Pjang Ngjam (方礹, 1735 – 1812) was a Themiclesian seaman and musician.

Early life

Birth and family background

The birthplace of Pjang is uncertain, and the year of his birth is known from his later disposition to the Ministry of the Civil Service regarding his personal information, which may be inaccurate (as will appear below). His father was Pjang Ljang-kwjei, and his mother went by the maiden name Prju; he appears to be the twelfth of twenty children born to them. Early in Pjang's life, his family lived in Smuk County and then moved to 'en County; they appeared to have been involved in the export of Themiclesian artistic craft to Casaterra, though it seems unlikely they made the export items themselves.

Enlistment and military career

Pjang was enlisted in the Themiclesian Marines in 1749, making him 13 in his first year of service. Some scholars, upon this basis, argue for an earlier birth year, since Themiclesian law definitely prohibited enlistment (for any military function) at the age of 13; others believe, however, this was possible and likely. In the 1740s, the Themiclesian Navy was reaching an unprecedented size and would have taken in more staff than ever before, and impressment came to be used inconsistently. While sailors had to be of legal age (20), a legal loophole allowed marines to be enlisted from the age of 10, nominally as an apprentice of an onboard technical officer, usually a physician or accountant; apprenticeship was, oftentimes, a thin veil for abduction. At the time, maritime activity was under guild administration, so ship crews were not as difficult to press into service; however, marines were recruited off the streets, and, given the Navy's notoriety for abuse, they were challenging to recruit. To create suitable replacement, the government encouraged marines to seek out recruits while off duty, and if one found eight recruits after 11 years of service, one was immediately discharged, the usual term of 20 years deemed complete. It is possible that a desperate marine lured Pjang, on one of his frequent errands to neighbouring counties, to enlist.

Very little is known about Pjang's career with the Navy. It is unclear on which fleet (North Sea or South Sea), let alone which ship, he served, or whether he experienced any battle during his minority. It seems plausible that he may have fought against the Sylvans in 1752, when he was 16 or 17. His contemporary, Captain Lang Sdrje', complained that all his infantrymen had "the faces and minds of children", making him hesitant to open battle and suggesting that Pjang's youth was not an isolated case. This ultimately cannot be ascertained, as Pjang himself was typically quiet, as all Themiclesian soldiers later attaining to gentry, about his military service. Nevertheless, he was later heard saying about his choice of a career in music,

In my youth I have see far too tormented faces, and now in adulthood I prefer an excess of entertained ones.

Around that time, Pjang was noted as having musical talent amongst the crew of his ship, often selected by the captain to play a lyre for the officers' entertainment. It seems his proximity with the Navy's officers earned him more than applause and affection: he was quickly promoted to a commander of a 20-man unit and then, within a year, to that of a 120-man unit, at the age of 22. His increased income allowed him to purchase better (for the most part, this meant louder) instruments.

Pjang was made Captain-General of the Marines in 1764, barely 29 years old. While this new position meant mostly administrative duties, it also carried the salaries of a Ninth Class civil servant, at least 20 times higher than what the next most senior officer received. He would also have received a large cabin for himself. It is known that he was next sent to oversee the Navy's blockade of Njit-nem (now the north of Maverica) ships from departing ports. As this place was settled by Ostlandians, it is likely he first came into contact with the piano at this point. Previously, he had already ordered a two-manual harpsichord for onboard use, but Maverica would have been his first taste of Ostlandian musical trends and master composers that would come to dominate his later life. Using his position as Captain-General, he ordered nine pianos made, one aboard each ship he regularly resided on. This is when his "obsessive" musical activities were noted by his subordinates, that he would,

play the fortepiano for ten, twelve hours at a time, regardless of the hour. His music rack became his desk. He played with immoderate volume that his ship was wide awake for nights running, to the point of mutiny. When they threatened to toss him, he would play something the crew liked to avoid that terrible but deserved fate. It was great convenience, for him, that he out-ranked the ship's actual captain.

Pjang, fortuitously, decided to quit the Navy in 1766, writing (unusually, in Tyrannian) that "amongste [sic] the honourable Compagnie [sic] of Sailing-men," he was "to [sic] unskiled [sic] in the Crafte [sic] of the Seas and of the Shippe [sic]" to occupy a "Plase [sic] of Dystyncuishmentis [sic] and Dygnitye [sic]." His successor, Captain-General Mrong, tells a different story in his own diary:

The current Captain-General, doubtlessly a man of great talent, has lately been very difficult to deal with. Whenever someone approached him with what is his proper duty, his tempers raged; it hardly helped his ship's entire crew was oft as cross as he was, for eminently understandable reasons. I cannot compel him to finish his paperwork more than he can command his hands leave the keyboard. As I am subordinated to him, his mind is subordinated to the lures of music. One such night, the Admiralty will note and make plain to him his choices, either the piano or the fleet.

His decision to leave the Navy in 1766, then, may have occurred after a higher-ranking admiral's threats to dismiss him if he could not confine his musical investments. Yet Pjang also had his supporters in the Navy: his frequent lashings-out at captains (no doubt, putting him to bed) earned him the adoration of many marines, who were easy victims of the fleet's bigotries. Sailors usually took themselves to be skilled workers, regarding the marines as "mere soldiers". Historian C. Gwing writes,

Pjang's enlistment under dubious transparency as to what he will later be required to do seems to have contributed to his frequent abuse of captains and crew members, who were impressed from guilds of seafaring enterprises. Belonging to a trade guild in Themiclesia endowed some professional or organizational pride, which sailors carried into the Navy. Whatever Pjang was promised, whether apprenticeship to a physician, surgeon, accountant, or surveyor, turned out to be a lie. As soon as he enlisted, his prospects at professional standing were dashed. He was thus subject to a second-rate existence aboard a ship where everyone else claimed to have a critical place, when he could not; and, thus much, the age of 13. His devotion to and excellence in music is a re-assertion of a professional standing that none whosoever in the Navy, then, could claim.

See also

• Themiclesia