The symphonic poem’s music was composed in the appropriately late-Romantic style. The title of the work, Es waren zwei Konigskinder, comes from a German folk ballad. According to the tale, there are two royal children who love each other but they lived in castles that are separated by a deep body of water. The woman, Leander, lights a candle to guide the prince hero to her location but partway through his journey, she falls asleep and a wicked woman comes and extinguishes the flame, leaving the prince to drown. The following day she wakes up with a headache and asks the queen to go on a walk to the green sea. After managing to sneak away from the queen, she walks to the beach and finds the prince’s corpse. In a fit of anguish, she ends her story by drowning herself.
The music follows a similar path as the folk story. It starts with a hopeful major melody beginning with the comforting timbre of oboes, but then as tragedy strikes, the tonality shifts to g-sharp minor with emphasis on the darker lower instruments. However, Volbach breaks away from the story of the poem and ends the piece with a melody that starts as a solo. As more voices join in, more hope is added as the theme rises and resolves to a triumphant shift to C-sharp Major. As the story ends, so too does the song, this time not as a somber sad ending but rather as an energetic and warm one.
