The copyright on all works issued prior to 1923 expired no later than December 31, 1978 if my reading of this PDF [0] from the U.S. Copyright Office is correct.

The copyright on all works issued prior to 1923 expired no later than December 31, 1978 if my reading of this PDF [0] from the U.S. Copyright Office is correct. In particular, if the melody had a copyright date of 1893, it would've expired no later than December 31, 1949, because copyrights could only be held for a maximum of 56 years (one 28-year initial term and the potential for one 28-year renewal). [0] http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf