His audio, a new recording, would NOT be public domain. But it would be HIS.
There is a vital difference between copyright of the written music and any particular recording of said music.
There is a vital difference between copyright of the written music and any particular recording of said music.
Be careful using generic music from the Internet.
It's like if I recorded myself playing Für Elise. The recording I generate is owned by me, unless I release it to the public domain.
Not that I can see an obvious reason why it would be so tested, and frankly these are fuzzy memories from 15-20 years ago.
[1] https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode