Son of a Catalan father and a Basque mother, he lived in Barcelona since he was a child. He studied at the Conservatori del Liceu with Vicent Costa Nogueras (piano) and Francesc de Paula Sánchez Gavagnach (composition).
From 1914 he was professor of music theory, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and composition at the same Conservatory. During the 1920s, he worked as a pianist. Between 1917 and 1930 he wrote many cuplés which were sung in the “Paral·lel” by artists such as Pilar Alonso and Raquel Meller, many of whom he signed under the name I. Casamoz. He was also a professor at the Conservatori Superior Municipal de Música de Barcelona, ??an institution of which he was director from 1946 until his retirement in 1965. He wrote many books for music teaching, both in lonely as in collaboration with other teachers. He was co-author of the extremely popular solfege method L.A.Z. (Name taken from the initials of the authors: Joan Baptista Lambert, Frederic Alfonso and Joaquín Zamacois). He also wrote "Teoría de la música", "Curso de solfeo", "Tratado de armonía", "Guión de historia de la música”, among others.
He was the author of symphonic works, zarzuelas, choral works, music for piano, for violin and piano, sardanas and many songs written based on poems by Josep Maria de Sagarra, Carner, Clementina Arderiu, Joan Maria Guasch or Joan Maragall. His work is nationalist and takes the Catalan popular song as a source of inspiration, although some works show an impressionistic touch. His works include "La sega" for orchestra, "Aguafuertes" for piano, Quartet in D minor for strings and "San Joan" and "Cant de joia " por corazón.
Some of his disciples were Román Alís, Xavier Boliart, Narcís Bonet, Agustí Cohí y Grau, Josep Maria Damunt, Alicia de Larrocha, Antoni Pérez and Simón, Robert de la Riba, Antoni Ros-Marbà, Mercè Torrens and Adolf Cabané.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW BETTER THE ARTIST?
Sardanes by Joaquim ZamacoisWorks by Joaquim Zamacois in the Biblioteca de CatalunyaWorks by Joaquim Zamacois a la Biblioteca del Conservatori Municipal de Música de BarcelonaSheet music and letters in the Centre de Documentació de l´Orfeó Català
PERFORMED WORKS
Corpus, for voice and piano
Becqueriana (Aguafuertes), for piano
