We’re celebrating our 50th episode with a special live show! Recorded with a live audience at Saint Boniface Catholic Church in Cold Spring, Minnesota, this interview with Dan Schutte is from a Lenten mission that took place on March 8, 2020. This was the last time the three of us were able to travel before the quarantines and travel restrictions put into place because of the Corona Virus pandemic. This is an hour filled with conversation, stories, reflection, and music making. It’s the same kind of interview as our other episodes, just with 300 of our closest friends! You don’t want to miss it! So, please open your hymnal!

We are closing out Advent and 2020 with our third annual “OYH Lessons & Carols.” You’ll hear a range of instrumental and choral music from a variety of composers. You’ll also hear readings from scripture and seasonal reflections woven throughout, read by friends of the podcast: Kate Williams, LaTonia Clark Chalmers, Genoa Arling, Ivy O’Connell, Audrey Reichert, and Clare Reichert.. We hope that this celebration will serve as a moment of pause and reflection during this busy time of year. So, please open your hymnals!

Happy Advent! As we journey through this sacred season toward the celebration of Christ’s birth we are spending time revisiting some of our favorite Advent music. Today we feature a conversation with Craig Colson about his piece “This is Your Justice,” filled with references to texts from the prophet Isaiah. In addition to excerpts from our interview with Craig you’ll hear an extended playlist, journeying through new and familiar music for the season. Make sure to visit our social media pages for more Advent music, and make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss our upcoming Christmas special features, including the 2020 edition of our annual OYH Lessons and Carols. So, please open your hymnals to “This is Your Justice” and the music of Advent!

We are proud to bring you this interview replay! This episode was originally posted in December, 2018. Happy New Liturgical Year! Advent has just begun, and to kick things off, we’re bringing you one of our favorite seasonal episodes from the past four years. Join Zack Stachowski and Matt Reichert as they speak with composer Carol Browning about “Creator of the Stars of Night.” Bob Moore stops by to talk about Carol’s music, and Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, gives some historical background to the 1,000-year-old chant hymn at the core of this piece. Plus, you’ll hear a bunch of great music in the OYH Playlist. So, please open your hymnal to "Creator of the Stars of Night."

This week we celebrate the Feast of All Souls, and in this time of remembrance, we thought we’d take some time to honor the composers, text authors, and pastoral musicians who passed away over this last year.  In this episode, you’ll hear music from six members of our field who died between November 2019 and November 2020. As we celebrate their lives and their contributions, we hope you’ll join us and add in the names of your loved ones, colleagues, friends, mentors, choir members, neighbors – who died in 2020.

We’ve been featuring the music of Janét Sullivan Whitaker in our episodes for several seasons. If you’re a long-time listener of the podcast, you’ve heard her compositions in many “OYH Playlist” segments and special themed episodes. We’re excited to finally feature an interview with Janét, and we discuss all of the usual topics: setting text, crafting melody, and more. We’ll also hear one of our favorite cringe-worthy cantor moments, and you don’t want to miss it. So, please open your hymnals to “In Every Age.”

It’s finally here! After an extended summer “break,” we’re happy to be back with an all new episode! Today we’re kicking-off Season 4 of Open Your Hymnal with a special preview episode. You’ll hear a run-down of the songs and composers we’ll be featuring in our upcoming season. You’ll also hear a little more about some of our new approach to programming and interviewing. Our first full interview episode will be out in just a few weeks. Of course, we have more plans in the works for Season 4 than we were able to talk about in today’s episode. We’ve got additional interviews, some surprise guests, lots of themed episodes, and more. If you haven’t already done so, follow us on social media (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter). Subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode! You can subscribe to OYH on Apple Music, Spotify, and Google Play. We’re glad to have you with us for another season of the show. So, please open your hymnals to Season 4!

As with all of you, things at Open Your Hymnal have been different the last several weeks. So, we’re behind with our new episodes. We promise we’ll get back to them very soon.  In the meantime, though, we can’t ignore the things that are happening in our communities. We’re feeling the pile up of grief, sadness, anger, and hopelessness. So, we offer these songs to you, hoping they meet you wherever you are, that they accompany you, speak to you. At a time when, on the one hand we’ve lost our ability to sing together and, on the other hand, we’re made speechless by so much pain and injustice, we hope that we can still be fed, lead, and joined together by a power that can only come through music.  There won’t be any conversation in this episode, just the music. Thank you for spending this time with us in prayer and reflection. May we be healed, but never the same. May we all respond to the call, accept the commission, for real work, real action, real justice. 

This is the night! Our prayer series concludes with this offering for the Easter Vigil. You’ll hear prayers written by John Kyler, a reflection given by Fr. Michael Joncas, and music selections from several composers. May it be a way for you to enter deeply into these holy days, and may it serve as a way for us all to pray together, though we are apart. So, please pray with us!

Our prayer series continues with this offering for Good Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord. You’ll hear prayers written by John Kyler, a reflection given by Fr. Michael Joncas, and music selections from several composers. May it be a way for you to enter deeply into these holy days, and may it serve as a way for us all to pray together, though we are apart. So, please pray with us!

These holy days of Triduum are unlike any other days of the year. This year, for many in areas affected by COVID-19, our celebration will be unlike any other year. In order to provide a way for us to still pray together, we are presenting a special podcast series for Triduum. You’ll hear prayers written by John Kyler, a reflection given by Fr. Michael Joncas, and music selections from several composers. So, please pray with us!

It’s back! Our favorite podcasting event of the year returns with the 2020 “Hymn Tune Madness” Tournament. This year our bracket is populated with hymn tunes voted on by you, our faithful listeners. There are some returners from our first tournament last year, with favorites like NETTLETON, HYFRYDOL, SLANE, and PASSION CHORALE. There are also several upstarts who are making their first appearance in the tournament, like OLD HUNDREDTH, LAND OF REST, and AR HYD Y NOS. You can download and fill-in your own bracket here. Share it with us on social media and join the conversation on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. The voting will begin on Monday, March 23 with one match-up being decided each day. Voting will take place on our social media pages, so follow us for more information and updates. Today’s episode is an exploration of the first round match-ups, talking through each pairing in our two divisions, “New Britain” and “Darwall.” You’ll hear excerpts of each tune, and a special tribute to the 2019 Grand Champion, THAXTED. So, please open your tournament brackets!

Take twenty minutes out of your day to pause, reflect, and pray. Following a basic evening prayer structure, this prayer experience includes Psalmody, Psalm prayers, readings from Scripture, time for reflection, intercessions, and a blessing.

We are closing out Advent with our second annual “OYH Lessons & Carols.” You’ll hear a range of great music from a variety of composers. You’ll also hear non-scriptural readings woven throughout, read by friends of the podcast: Meredith Augustin, Rory Cooney, Bex Gaunt, David Haas, Carol Browning, Jaime Cortez, Kate Williams, and Audrey and Clare Reichert. Whether you listen while driving in the car, baking Christmas cookies, preparing for liturgy, or anyplace else, we hope that this celebration will serve as a moment of pause and reflection during this busy time of year. So, please open your hymnals!

OYH is shaking things up and turning our microphone around! Today, our co-host Zack Stachowski serves as our interview guest, speaking about his Advent piece, “When You Come.” Since the co-host is becoming the guest, it only makes sense to have one of our past guests serve as co-host. We’re glad to be joined by Tony Alonso, who serves as co-host and helped interview Zack. As a special surprise, you’ll also hear from a host of other guests from past episodes, all sharing their insights into Zack’s piece. So, please open your hymnals to “When You Come.”

This is a special rebroadcast of our episode from November, 2018. It’s the first OYH Hymn Fest! In honor of the Feast of St. Cecilia, patroness of music, we’re celebrating some of our favorite hymn texts and hymn tunes. We’ll play a lot of music, including hymns from the English, German, Irish, and American traditions and some recently composed texts and tunes. We’ll also chat with special guests Dr. Michael McMahon (executive director of The Hymn Society), Brian Hehn (director of the Center for Congregational Song), and Dr. Tony Alonso. You’ll hear, too, from a few of our friends as they share their favorite hymns. As we mention in the episode, this is the first of several special episodes we’ll release this season. We’ll be preparing and releasing special episodes for “Songs of Mary,” “Songs of Christmas,” “Songs of Lent,” “Songs of Easter,” as well as episodes focusing on women composers and African American composers. Be sure to follow us on social media so you can share your requests with us. Who knows? You might end up on one of our episodes! So, please open your hymnals!

On September 29, 2019, the five member of the St. Louis Jesuits presented their final concert together, and OYH was there! Today, co-hosts Zack and Matt are joined by several guests to look back on the contributions of this pioneering group of composers. You’ll hear from listeners, pastoral musicians, and liturgical composers including Tom Booth, Lorraine Hess, Carol Browning, Bob Moore, Rory Cooney, Craig Colson, and Jaime Cortez. Most importantly, you’ll hear lots of our favorite songs from the past fifty years. So, please open your hymnals to the music of the St. Louis Jesuits!

It’s our first ever live episode! Recorded with a live audience at St. Michael the Archangel parish in Canton, Ohio, this interview is from the second night of a three-night parish mission given just before Lent in March, 2019. Join Zack and Matt for a conversation with composer Marty Haugen about several of his best-known songs. They’ll explore song writing, approaches to setting Scripture, instrumentation and musical styles, and more. You don’t want to miss it! So, please open your hymnal!