KQED was organized and founded by veteran broadcast journalists James Day and Jonathan Rice on June 1, 1953, and first signed on the air on April 5, 1954, as the fourth television station in the San Francisco Bay Area and the sixth public television station in the United States, debuting shortly after the launch of WQED in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station’s call letters, Q.E.D., are taken from the Latin phrase, quod erat demonstrandum. It literally translates as “which was to be demonstrated.”
Cultural programming on KQED included a multi-part series hosted by Alan Watts entitled, “Eastern Wisdom & Modern Life.” Arts programming presented Ansel Adams on photography. Darius Milhaud was the subject of two programs in a series, “The Creative Person.”
Darius Milhaud Part I: A Recollection of the Twenties was originally produced by KQED for National Educational Television (NET) – the predecessor of WNET – and first aired in 1965. Copyright to Darius Milhaud Part I: A Recollection of the Twenties is held by WNET. All rights reserved. WNET is the premier public media provider of the New York metropolitan area and parent of public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21.
Part I of a documentary film made by the KQED Film Unit, written, directed and narrated by Richard O. Moore, about the life and work of composer and teacher Darius Milhaud (1892-1974).Includes interviews with Milhaud, his wife Madeleine Milhaud (1902-2008) and also with jazz pianist and Milhaud’s former student Dave Brubeck. Darius Milhaud discusses: critical reactions to his work; the origins and formation of Les Six group in Paris; identification of himself as a “mediterranean lyricist”; his experiences of the Parisian artistic scene during the 1920s; the relation of writer Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) and composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) to Les Six; his youthful approach towards life and work; admiration for composer Claude Debussy’s music (“I have always had an enormous devotion for Debussy”); his opinion of Maurice Ravel’s music (“I’m allergic to Ravel”) and methods of musical composition. When asked which of his works he likes best, Milhaud replies: “The next one, the next one! I forget my past works very fast and I think that’s a very good thing.” Brubeck considers how Milhaud use of the jazz idiom provided “a new fresh spirit within classical music.” Madeleine Milhaud discusses adaptations of Erik Satie’s Le piège de Méduse, with views of this short play being performed on-stage. Also features scenes of Darius and Madeleine presenting a spoken word version of his opus Caramel Mou on-stage, as well as a full musical rendition at Mill College’s 1963 Milhaud Festival in Oakland. This film was produced by William Triest and executively produced for NET by Lane Slate.
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