Small Ensemble/Chamber

for flute and harp (2024) 

Duration: 2'

Written for Henriette Poos and Nika Pinter

for solo organ arr. string quartet or string trio (2024) 

Duration: 5'

Programme Note:

Based on the opening bars of the Ave Maris Stella, this work (originally for for solo organ) contemplates the material in a sunken, meditative state. Inspired by drone and ambient music, I invite the performers to linger on every chord and every change, feeling the dense harmony filling the space around them.

The word Lacuna means “a blank space” which might be odd given that this dense music may feel like the opposite, but I want this music to fill the space it is performed as well as the people listening, becoming almost a background to their thoughts and feelings, almost like replacing the silence that existed before the music begun playing, to then becoming the silence.

for string quartet (2024)

Duration: 3'

Programme Note:

Based off of a hymn by Nicolas de Grigny, this string quartet extends the fourth movement of Thomas’ work Five glances through glass horses and arranges it for string quartet.

for percussion, harpsichord, and historical strings (2024)

Duration: 8' 30"

Movements:

I: Weaving and spiralling

II: Constantly flowing, intense

III: Like bells ringing

IV: Adagio hymn

V: All previous movements coagulating

This piece was first premiered on the 24th of April 2024 at the Royal College of Music London, performed by Hoi Yin Ng (percussion), Ceci Keiffer (harpsichord), Alma Balazs (violin), Katharine Wing (viola), and Alex Boyd-Bench and Tom Wilson (bass viols), conducted by Asher Joyce.

Programme Note:

This piece was originally written for the Wolfson Centre project at the Royal College of Music, London, where composers of the college were invited to write for instruments in the museum and Wolfson Centre.

The title of this piece takes inspiration from contemporary artist Rae Klein’s series Glass Pony. The paintings by Klein take the silhouette of horses, and superimposes shimmering, washed- out textures. Influenced by these textures, Thomas’ piece creates similar gleaming atmospheres and dream-like settings, enigmatic of many of the composer’s works.

Five glances takes a wide range of musical inspirations from contemporary string writing, folk music, bell ringing, and a hymn by Nicolas de Grigny, which all coalesces in the final movement.

This piece was premiered on the 24th of April 2024 by Hoi Yin Ng (percussion), Ceci Keiffer (harpsichord), Alma Balazs (violin), Katharine Wing (viola), Alex Boyd-Bench and Tom Wilson (bass viol), and conducted by Asher Joyce in the RCM Museum, London.  

for piano trio (2023)

Duration: 3'

Programme Note:

LUOSTO was written as a part of the Fidelio Trio project in the Royal College of Music in Thomas’ first year of his undergraduate.

This piece by the Shorthouse centres around his trips to the north of Finland as a child. On these trips he stayed at the Luosto National Park which this piece is named after. Thomas looks at these experiences with a deep nostalgia and reflects this in the music with deeply heartfelt melodies. In addition to this the contrasting, furious writing and opening, and soft, melodramatic ending mimics the contrast of the long, drawn-out darkness of a Finnish winter with the very few hours of daylight one might see. Shorthouse imbues the piece with a core of warmth and hopes for both the performers and listeners of this piece to feel this too.

for string quartet (2022/23)

Duration: 10' 30"

Movements:

I: Airglow

II: Sprites

III: Bellsong

IV: Vesper

V: Revontulet

This piece was premiered on May 19th, 2023, in the Overtures open recording project at the Royal College of Music, performed by the Vox Quartet.

Find a recording of movement ii. Sprites here

Programme Note:

This string quartet centres around the idea of sudden change and uses various subjects and titles to reflect this as well as particular emotions that come with change.

For me as a composer I felt a drastic shift in my writing. Not only is this my first string quartet, this is also the first piece where I have used a core folk influence.
With movements such as Sprites and Revontulet, I use frantic, dance-like rhythms to evoke a sense of folk music.

Airglow, Sprites, and Revontulet all use meteorological imagery as a basis for their influence.

Airglow describes the halo of light that is often seen over cities in space, the static harmony of this movement reflecting the static nature of the ‘airglow’.

Sprites uses lightning sprites as its influence. Lightning sprites appear in higher areas of the atmosphere and are often mistaken as sprites or fairies. The intense rhythms and octave unison of this movement reflects the intensity of this phenomenon, with the folk-like melody reflecting the misinterpretations of otherworldly creatures associated with the lightning.

Revontulet translates to ‘Northern Lights’ in Finnish. As you can guess, this movement reflects the flowing movement of the Northern Lights and uses Finnish folk music as a basis for this, given Finland’s proximity to the Arctic Circle.

Bellsong and Vesper somewhat act as mirroring movements, with one evolving out of the other. Bellsong, to me, feels like a distant call, something you may not recognise in the dead of night, but is a noise you must move towards, like an inevitability. Once you find the source of this noise, it almost becomes deafening.

Vesper is, therefore, the moment of quietude you may take, to observe the moments after you find the “bellsong”, only to find emptiness. Take Vesper as a moment of reflection.

for flute, vibraphone, violin, and cello (2022)

Duration: 4'

This piece was first performed in March 2022 at the Royal Overseas League London by students of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Not available to purchase

for flute, Bb clarinet, violin, and cello (2021)

Duration: 7'

This piece was first performed in Augist 2021 as a part of the Sound and Music composition summer school concert series.