Tintagel Castle in north Cornwall has a long (but in itself purely fictional) association with the Arthurian legends - it is most famously used as location for these stories in the poem Idylls of the King by Tennyson. But even without any legend the cliff crowned with the castle ruin and the wide vistas of the Atlantic that can be seen from there are interesting enough in themselves.
The musical style of Arnold Bax (1883 - 1953) blends elements of Romanticism and Impressionism, with a marked Celtic influence. His orchestral scores are notable for their complexity and colorful instrumentation. Bax wrote his tone-poem Tintagel in 1917, after a visit there with his lover the pianist Harriet Cohen. The music evokes the ruined castle and the Atlantic, with overtones of the historical associations of the place. But in the surging sea music Bax also expresses his own passion and the tumultuous problems arising from it - Bax was married and finally didn't want to give up his family.
Symphonic Poems