Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

["hans w. koch" <>]

dear silencers,

in a german text about the german soundart event brueckenmusik 
(www.brueckenmusik.de), the author quotes cage from a conversation with c.h. 
waddington in 1972.
the german version runs like: „Wenn Musik Umweltgeräusche zulassen kann, 
ohne davon beeinträchtigt zu werden, so handelt es sich um moderne Musik. 
Wenn, wie bei einer Kom- position von Beethoven, ein schreiendes Baby oder 
ein hustender Gast die Zuhörer störend beeinflusst, dann wissen wir, dass 
es keine moderne Musik ist.“

which in english is something like: “If music can allow environmental noises 
without being disturbed by them, then it is modern music.
If, with a composition by Beethoven, a crying baby or a coughing member of 
the audience influence the listeners in a disturbing way, then we know that 
it is not modern music.”

now, since the publication is meant to be german/english, it doesn´t make 
much sense to retranslate that quote into english.
i ´d be extremely grateful, if someone could give me the correct english 
wording.

thank you in advance

hans w. koch