Coming from the knowledge of a music student and choral music librarian...
It's true that the copyrights on a lot of old music have elapsed. However, a lot of sheet music for old music is still copyrighted because the publishers edited the score (adding performance notes, performance marks, dynamic marks, etc.). So those editions are under copyright even if the original music is not under copyright.
However, you still have to pay for the printing of music that is not under copyright. I can usually tell if new copies of a work are still under copyright because the ones that aren't are dead cheap (under $1.00 per part, depending on the number of pages).
Interestingly, there is a resource online (I can't remember the name or site) that collects old choral works which are no longer under copyright and makes them available for free download and printing. We've been seeing a lot of choirs use these resources, which is wonderful.
The problem with that perspective is that allowing music to be copied by others no longer falls under personal use. That becomes making the music publically available for another person's (though still non-commercial) use.
If you wanted to make a music video or a film using this music for your own enjoyment and not for sale would be OK though.
Slashdot Mirror
Coming from the knowledge of a music student and choral music librarian... It's true that the copyrights on a lot of old music have elapsed. However, a lot of sheet music for old music is still copyrighted because the publishers edited the score (adding performance notes, performance marks, dynamic marks, etc.). So those editions are under copyright even if the original music is not under copyright. However, you still have to pay for the printing of music that is not under copyright. I can usually tell if new copies of a work are still under copyright because the ones that aren't are dead cheap (under $1.00 per part, depending on the number of pages). Interestingly, there is a resource online (I can't remember the name or site) that collects old choral works which are no longer under copyright and makes them available for free download and printing. We've been seeing a lot of choirs use these resources, which is wonderful.
The problem with that perspective is that allowing music to be copied by others no longer falls under personal use. That becomes making the music publically available for another person's (though still non-commercial) use. If you wanted to make a music video or a film using this music for your own enjoyment and not for sale would be OK though.