Determining Availability

I received a letter from my good friend, Rickey Shirley about use of a specific hymn in an arrangement which he submitted for publishing. Here is clarification which I hope it will be useful  to all arrangers:
Jerry Jackman

  Rickey,

  One clarification—be cautious when using the

  creation date of a piece as a determination as to

  its availability. That has only an indirect impact on the issue. 

  A composer would have had to be no older than 19 when

  he died in order for his piece, created in 1923 to

  be available now. You see, it is his DEATH date that

  determines when a piece passes into Public Domain,
  not when the piece was written or

  published. Otherwise, he could be 89 years old

  today, and the seventy years protection of his work

  would still not have kicked in.

  The only possible further consideration is when

  his piece was copyrighted in or before

  1927—that copyright renewed in 1956, and finally

  expired and passed into Public Domain in 1984.
  The next year, 1985, the new

  copyright law went into effect and extended

  protection to the later issues of writer's entire lifetime,
  PLUS seventy years.

  I publish the works of people now who were born

  before 1923, who are STILL living.

  Remember that the copyright now extends for a long,

  long time, and only if the writer has been DEAD,

  now, since before 1942 can we consider using their

  work at all—well, at least without permission.

  Fun stuff, isn't it?—Research, I mean.

  Jerry