Editing Maurice Ravel (section)

===Les Apaches and Debussy===
Around 1900 Ravel and a number of innovative young artists, poets, critics and musicians joined together in an informal group; they came to be known as [[Les Apaches]] ("The Hooligans"), a name coined by Viñes to represent their status as "artistic outcasts".<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 28</ref> They met regularly until the beginning of the First World War, and members stimulated one another with intellectual argument and performances of their works. The membership of the group was fluid, and at various times included [[Igor Stravinsky]] and [[Manuel de Falla]] as well as their French friends.{{refn|Other members were the composers [[Florent Schmitt]], [[Maurice Delage]] and [[Paul Ladmirault]], the poets [[Léon-Paul Fargue]] and [[Tristan Klingsor]], the painter [[Paul Sordes]] and the critic [[Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi|Michel Calvocoressi]].<ref>Pasler, p. 403; Nichols (1977), p. 20; and Orenstein (1991), p. 28</ref>|group= n}}

Among the enthusiasms of the Apaches was the music of Debussy. Ravel, twelve years his junior, had known Debussy slightly since the 1890s, and their friendship, though never close, continued for more than ten years.<ref name=n101>Nichols (1987), p. 101</ref> In 1902 [[André Messager]] conducted the premiere of Debussy's opera'' [[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' at the [[Opéra-Comique]]. It divided musical opinion. Dubois unavailingly forbade Conservatoire students to attend, and the conductor's friend and former teacher [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] was prominent among those who detested the piece.<ref>Orledge, p. 65 (Dubois); and Donnellon, pp. 8–9 (Saint-Saëns)</ref> The Apaches were loud in their support.<ref>McAuliffe, pp. 57–58</ref> The first run of the opera consisted of fourteen performances: Ravel attended all of them.<ref>McAuliffe, p. 58</ref>

[[File:Debussy-Nadar-1905.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=head and shoulder image of bearded man of middle age, seen in right profile|[[Claude Debussy]] in 1905]]
Debussy was widely held to be an [[Impressionism in music|Impressionist]] composer – a label he intensely disliked. Many music lovers began to apply the same term to Ravel, and the works of the two composers were frequently taken as part of a single genre.<ref>James, pp. 30–31</ref> Ravel thought that Debussy was indeed an Impressionist but that he himself was not.<ref name=k16>Kelly (2000), p. 16</ref>{{refn|Ravel later came to the view that "Impressionism" was not a suitable term for any music, and was essentially relevant only to painting.<ref>Orenstein (2003), p. 421</ref>|group= n}} Orenstein comments that Debussy was more spontaneous and casual in his composing while Ravel was more attentive to form and craftsmanship.<ref name="Orenstein, 1991, p. 127">Orenstein (1991), p. 127</ref> Ravel wrote that Debussy's "genius was obviously one of great individuality, creating its own laws, constantly in evolution, expressing itself freely, yet always faithful to French tradition. For Debussy, the musician and the man, I have had profound admiration, but by nature I am different from Debussy{{nbsp}}... I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of [his] [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolism]]."<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 33; and James, p. 20</ref> During the first years of the new century Ravel's new works included the piano piece ''[[Jeux d'eau (Ravel)|Jeux d'eau]]''{{refn|Literally "Games of water", sometimes translated as "Fountains"|group= n}} (1901), the [[String Quartet (Ravel)|String Quartet]] and the orchestral song cycle ''Shéhérazade'' (both 1903).<ref name=landormy431/> Commentators have noted some Debussian touches in some parts of these works. Nichols calls the quartet "at once homage to and exorcism of Debussy's influence".<ref>Nichols (2011), p. 52</ref>

The two composers ceased to be on friendly terms in the middle of the first decade of the 1900s, for musical and possibly personal reasons. Their admirers began to form factions, with adherents of one composer denigrating the other. Disputes arose about the chronology of the composers' works and who influenced whom.<ref name=n101/> Prominent in the anti-Ravel camp was Lalo, who wrote, "Where M. Debussy is all sensitivity, M. Ravel is all insensitivity, borrowing without hesitation not only technique but the sensitivity of other people."<ref name=James46/> The public tension led to personal estrangement.<ref name=James46>James, p. 46</ref> Ravel said, "It's probably better for us, after all, to be on frigid terms for illogical reasons."<ref>Nichols (1987), p. 102</ref> Nichols suggests an additional reason for the rift. In 1904 Debussy left his wife and went to live with the singer [[Emma Bardac]]. Ravel, together with his close friend and confidante [[Misia Edwards]] and the opera star [[Lucienne Bréval]], contributed to a modest regular income for the deserted Lilly Debussy, a fact that Nichols suggests may have rankled with her husband.<ref>Nichols (2011), pp. 58–59</ref>