This may be of interest re. Morning Has Broken, also some info of interest re.
"recycling" folk tunes.

Cat Stevens and BUNESSAN
Bunessan on the other hand, is a folk tune which had already been collected by someone else. In this case, only Shaw's particular arrangement, the one in Songs of Praise (paired with Morning has Broken), remains in his copyright.

To explain further:

Whilst a lot of people growing up in the mid-20th Century would have been familiar with the Anglican hymn Morning has Broken, Cat Stevens, having been to a Roman Catholic school, was not. In an interview about MhB, he explained that he had came across an old school hymn book for the first time and had found it to be a compendium of folk tunes , a musical treasure-trove.

Thumbing through, Stevens did not have to look far to find inspiration. Morning has Broken is Hymn No. 30, and, assuming it was a Victorian hymn, (the irony of it! Songs of Praise was written as an Anti-Victorian hymn book), he took it off to the recording studio, changed the key from B flat to C major, and made it famous.

The assumption that it was a Victorian hymn was probably due to the discretion with which Martin Shaw made his copyright declaration: it is tucked away on page xi of the Preface. Nowadays composers know better, their names proclaim their good work alongside the title, original work or no.

Because, as a result of Cat Stevens using Morning has Broken without permission, the Martin Shaw estate brought a court case. The Farjeon Estate own copyright for her poem, but even though Martin Shaw was the primary cause of the hymn, (he had asked Eleanor Farjeon Estate to put words to the tune), Cat Stevens won the case. The judge's decision was that Martin Shaw's copyright extended to his arrangement only, not to the tune itself.

Which is fair enough. Otherwise, anyone could use any old tune (e.g. Happy Birthday) and claim it as their copyright for evermore, which would lead to a copyright free-for-all.

Meanwhile Morning has Broken continues to be Cat Stevens' greatest hit, which just goes to show that it's not the hymn-tunes which are boring, it's the way you play them.

from; http://www.martinshawmusic.com/copyright.html

Regards
Vintage