A.M. Cagle's Soar Away - Copyright Status Check

[DLONex]

A.M. Cagle's "Soar Away" is published in many Sacred Harp publications, and first appeared in the 1930s. Anyone happen to know the current copyright status of the piece?

[Carolus]

That's really hard to say - assuming the item first appeared in the 1930s. I know that there were a few new items added in for the various revisions and reprintings of the original Sacred Harp, which first appeared in 1844. Unless you can find a pre-1923 sample of the hymn, the only way to find out would be to pay the US Copyright Office to conduct a search, or conduct one yourself if you happened to have access to the Catalog of Copyright Entries (Renewals) for the period 1950-1977. The pertains to USA status only, of course. The status elsewhere is mainly dependent upon the date of the last surviving author's death.