Written for Luca Imperiale and the Horsham Symphony Orchestra, Thomas was approached by Imperiale in June of 2023 to write this piece for the premier two years in the future. After meeting with conductor of the orchestra, Steve Dummer, Thomas began gathering materials and inspiration for what would be his largest undertaking yet.

During a trip to Sydney in August of 2023, Thomas and a friend visited and camped at The Basin in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on Darramurra-gal country. Nearing the end of the Australian winter, the campgrounds were all but empty, save for brush turkeys and wallabies. Gazing into the ocean inlet, and at the surrounding cliffs, it was hard to not feel an intense sense of the sublime. The night they camped; Thomas had a very vivid dream, where we begin the first movement...

[recording release pending]

This piece was originally written for the National Center for Early Music's 2024 Young Composer’s Award, and workshopped and performed at the NCEM by Ex Corde.

Inspired by the choral and vocal writing of Lili Boulanger, Thomas set out to write a piece with a similar tumultuous atmosphere, claustrophobic harmonies and sudden, dramtic shifts in tone. This piece is set to a text by Jacob Gallus (1550-1591) titled Mirabile mysterium from where the title of Thomas’ work comes from. The text, as shown below, depicts the arrival of God on earth as man. Thomas was particularly fond, however, of the text “Mirabile mysterium declaratur hodie, innovantur naturae;” which appears frequently in this piece as a kind of chant, echoing many early forms of vocal music.

[recording release pending]