Karl Erb was the illegitimate son of an assembly line worker. His childhood and adolescence were sad and poverty-stricken. He was misanthropic, introverted and tended to inordinatethrift and self-sufficiency. He was an autodidact and had analmost fanatical love for his mother. He was the greatestEvangelist (in Bach's "St. Matthews Passion") and the mostspiritual, angelic lied and oratorio