A film score rooted in hymns

As you've probably heard, the music to the Coen Brothers' True Grit is rooted and based around 19th century hymns. Here's what the composer, Carter Burwell, says about coming up with the film score:

“Ethan and Joel and I had the same idea—a score rooted in 19th-century hymns. The songs Mattie would sing if she had time for such frivolity. Our model was the hymn ‘Leaning on the Everlasting Arms’, composed in 1888 by Anthony Showalter, an elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Dalton, Georgia, and used memorably in the film The Night of the Hunter. This, together with other hymns of the period, forms the backbone of the score, which grows from church piano to orchestra as Mattie gets farther and farther from home.”

You can read Burwell's narration through the film scoring process here. Definitely worth the read if you like music (and I'm pretty sure you do).