Editing Carl Nielsen (section)

=== Early years ===
[[File:20110101 Carl Nielsen home cropped.jpg|thumb|alt=photograph of a thatched country cottage|Nielsen's childhood home at [[Sortelung]] near Nørre Lyndelse]]
Nielsen was born on 9 June 1865, the seventh of twelve children in a poor peasant family, at [[Sortelung]] near Nørre Lyndelse, south of [[Odense]] on the island of Funen.<ref>{{cite book |first=S. A. E. |last=Hagen |editor-first=Carl Frederik |editor-last=Bricka |chapter=Nielsen, August Carl |title=Dansk Biografisk Leksikon |volume=12 |pages=213–214 |year=1898}}</ref> His father, Niels Jørgensen, was a house painter and [[Danish traditional music|traditional musician]] who, with his abilities as a fiddler and cornet player, was in strong demand for local celebrations. Nielsen described his childhood in his autobiography {{lang|da|[[Min Fynske Barndom]]}} (''My Childhood on Funen''). His mother, whom he recalls singing folk songs during his childhood, came from a well-to-do family of sea captains,{{sfn|Lawson|1997|p=16}} while one of his half-uncles, Hans Andersen (1837–1881), was a talented musician.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://carlnielsen.dk/pages/biography/funen-childhood.php|title=Funen Childhood|publisher=Carl Nielsen Society|access-date=21 April 2015|archive-date=14 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414015242/http://carlnielsen.dk/pages/biography/funen-childhood.php|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Larsen|2015}}

Nielsen gave an account of his introduction to music: "I had heard music before, heard father play the violin and cornet, heard mother singing, and, when in bed with the measles, I had tried myself out on the little violin."{{sfn|Nielsen|1953|p=23}} He had received the instrument from his mother when he was six.<ref name=earlyyears /> He studied violin and piano as a child, and wrote his earliest compositions at the age of eight or nine: a lullaby, now lost, and a polka that he mentions in his autobiography. As his parents did not believe he had any future as a musician, they apprenticed him to a shopkeeper in a nearby village when he was fourteen. The shopkeeper went bankrupt by midsummer and Nielsen had to return home. After learning to play [[brass instrument]]s, on 1 November 1879 he became a [[bugle (instrument)|bugler]] and [[alto trombone|alto trombonist]] in the band of the army's 16th Battalion in Odense.<ref name="mmio" />

Nielsen did not give up the violin during his time with the battalion, continuing to play it when he went home to perform at dances with his father.<ref name="mmio" /> The army paid him three [[Danish krone|kroner]] and 45 [[øre]] and a loaf of bread every five days for two and a half years, after which his salary was raised slightly, enabling him to buy the civilian clothes he needed to perform at barn dances.<ref name=earlyyears>{{cite web |title=The Early Years |work=Carl Nielsen 2015 |date=6 May 2014 |url=http://www.carlnielsen.org/en/man-myth-and-music/the-early-years |access-date=3 May 2015 |archive-date=18 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518122257/http://www.carlnielsen.org/en/man-myth-and-music/the-early-years |url-status=live }}</ref>