Jonathan Ellis wrote:

>There is a management book which deals with the S curve - a typical way
>of showing the growth an maturiy of a product.  It is a well established
>theory that when a product is introduced, the growth is very slow, then
>increases until it reaches maturity, at which time it moves downwards into
>decline.  This theory has been used on the works of various composers, and
>I should like to quote from a book entitled "Evolution Management," by Dr
>Marc van der Erve: ...

So!  Now we're looking to writers of books on management to predict the
quality of composers' works had they lived longer.

For starters, what's all this about the "S curve"? Described above as the
growth of a product, what does that mean? Obviously not the product's size.
If not its size, is it its popularity? Its quality? Something else?

And, having decided what is meant by a product's growth, what is the basis
for analogizing it to the quality of a composer's output?

Let the shoemaker stick to his last and the management mavens to management.

Walter Meyer