National Endowment for the Humanities Funds Preservation of Charles H. Pace's Gospel Music
Seton Hill University and the University of Pittsburgh are collaborating on a project to preserve approximately 200 songs by prolific Pittsburgh-based musician Charles H. Pace. This initiative is made possible by a nearly $190,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Associate Professor of Music Mark A. Boyle from Seton Hill University will work with Christopher Lynch, Ph.D., head of the Theodore M. Finney Music Library at the University of Pittsburgh. The University of Pittsburgh houses the Charles and Frankie Pace Collection, which is a significant archive of modern Black gospel music. The project aims to create a critical edition of Pace’s complete songs, which were largely unpreserved or unrecorded after his death in 1963, despite his and his wife Frankie's efforts to build a nationwide distribution network for his music through Black-owned stores in the 1940s and 1950s. The original printing plates for his music were later salvaged and brought to the University of Pittsburgh but...
