Cornil Cacheux


Cornil Cacheux was a French pipe organ maker.

Biography

Cacheux was born on 6 January 1687 in Cambrai, North-France. He died in Arras on 11 July 1738.

Organs

He started his activities around 1714.
In Artois, he built the organs of Église Notre-Dame de Calais and Église Saint-Géry d'Arras. He built the organ at abbaye d'Anchin in 1732, which was transferred in 1792 to the Collégiale Saint-Pierre de Douai.
In the Southern Netherlands, he worked in the old bishoprics of Ghent, Bruges and Tournai between 1721 and 1735. He built organs at Machelen, Tielt, Sint-Eloois-Vijve, Hulste, Waregem, and Sint-Lodewijk. In Bruges he built organs at the Saint-Walburga Church, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, and .

St. Walburga Church (Bruges)

The 1735 commission was for an organ in the old Sint-Walburgakerk. When this church was closed and demolished, the organ was transferred in 1778 to the new church, the former Franciscus-Xaverius Church.
Cacheux just started work on this organ when he died. According to organ maker Charles-Louis Van Houtte, he had fatally swallowed a spider while working at the new organ in Tielt and died of the consequences.
The instrument was further finished under supervision of his widow, by the Lille organ makers Jean-Baptiste Frémat and J. Carlier. Early in 1739 they submitted a final design, which was accepted. The organ was already commissioned on 17 May 1739. The organ chest was built by Hendrik Pulinx the Younger. Despite the many modifications, this organ is considered as one of the better of the many organs in Bruges.