''Sinfoni Melayu'' (or ''Sinfoni Malaya'') is mentioned in the reference work ''Contemporary Composers'' as a symphony composed by
Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...
in 1956, when he was a teacher at
Malay College Kuala Kangsar
The Malay College Kuala Kangsar (abbreviated MCKK; ; ) is a premier residential school in Malaysia. It is an elite all-boys and all- Malay school in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, Perak. It is sometimes dubbed "the Eton College of the East".
...
. In his book ''This Man and Music'' Burgess himself wrote:
: ''Sinfoni Melayu'', a three-movement symphony which tried to combine the musical elements of the country into a synthetic language which called on native drums and xylophones as well as instruments of the full Western orchestra. The last movement ended with a noble professional theme, rather
Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
ian, representing independence. Then, over a drum roll and before the final chord in C major, the audience was to rise and shout "
Merdeka!"
In his ''Anthony Burgess Newsletter'' in 1999
Paul Phillips called "''Sinfoni Malaya'' for orchestra and brass band” Burgess's second symphony, following Symphony No. 1, composed in 1935).
The score of the symphony appears to have been lost,
Music 1954-59
International Anthony Burgess Foundation
and there is no evidence that it was ever performed, so the only source for its existence is Burgess’s own testimony.
References
1956 compositions
Burgess, Sinfoni Melayu
Lost musical works
Works by Anthony Burgess
Malaysian music
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