Sinfoni Melayu is mentioned in Contemporary composers as a symphony composed by Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess

John Burgess Wilson  – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...

 in 1956, when he was a teacher at Malay College Kuala Kangsar

Malay College Kuala Kangsar

The Malay College Kuala Kangsar is a residential school in Malaysia. It is an all-boys and all-Malay school located in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar, Perak...

. In his book This Man & Music Burgess himself writes:

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 Elgarian, representing independence. Then, over a drum roll and before the final chord in C major, the audience was to rise and shout "Merdeka

Merdeka

Merdeka is a word in the Indonesian and Malay language meaning Independent or freedom. It is derived from the Sanskrit Maharddhika meaning "rich, prosperous and powerful". In the Malay archipelago, this term had acquired the meaning of a freed slave...

!"

In his Anthony Burgess Newsletter of 1999 Paul Phillips

Paul Phillips (conductor)

Paul Schuyler Phillips is an American conductor, composer and music scholar. He is Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music, with the rank of Senior Lecturer in Music, at Brown University. He is also Music Director and Conductor of the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus, and maintains an...

calls "Sinfoni Malaya for orchestra and brass band” Burgess' second symphony (after Symphony No. 1 of 1935).

The musical score not having been delivered to posterity, the only source that there ever was such a symphony seems to be Burgess’ own testimony.