Les Apaches

This article is about the group of French artists. For other uses of apache, see Apache (disambiguation).

Les Apaches or (Société des Apaches) was a group of French musicians, writers and artists which formed around 1900. Members of the group included:

• Edouard Benedictus, painter, composer and scientist
• Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, writer and music critic
• Maurice Delage, composer
• Manuel de Falla, composer
• Léon-Paul Fargue, poet
• Lucien Garban, publisher
• Pierre Haour
• Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, conductor
• Tristan Klingsor, poet, painter, art theorist
• Maurice Ravel, composer and pianist
• Gomez de Riquet (an imaginary member)
• Florent Schmitt, composer
• Paul Sordes, painter
• Igor Stravinsky, composer
• Ricardo Viñes, pianist
• Émile Vuillermoz, music critic

The name was taken up by the group after inadvertently bumping into a newspaper seller who exclaimed "Attention les apaches". They soon adapted the name, which literally refers to the Native American Apache tribe, but had the additional meaning in French of 'hooligans'. Ravel suggested that they adopt the first melody of the Borodin 2nd Symphony as their theme, an idea with which they all agreed. The group met each Saturday, most often at the home of Sordes; alternatively, they would meet at that of Klingsor.

The group had rallied around Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande at and after its controversial premiere. Ravel dedicated the movements of his piano work Miroirs to members of the Apaches.

Further reading

1. Apaches, at Maurice Ravel Frontispice. [Retrieved 17 November 2008].
2. "Maurice Ravel." Contemporary Musicians, Volume 25. Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005.