Carl Nielsen, born to a poor musician's family in a village outside Odense in 1865, became Denmark's most important composer — six symphonies, two operas, and a body of songs that almost every Dane learns at school. The museum, attached to the concert hall, displays manuscripts, instruments, and the sculptures by his wife Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen.
The displays are bilingual and not large; an hour is enough. Listening stations let visitors hear excerpts of the symphonies and the Helios overture. The museum is included with admission to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, which is just across the river.