progressive rock, experimental, Inspired by Rush, powerful, rhythmic, dynamic
This progressive rock-inspired remix, transforms Andrea Lunsford’s “Writing, Technologies, and the Fifth Canon” into a performative composition, mirroring her call for multimodal literacy. The song’s dynamic structure—shifting time signatures, layered instrumentation, and spoken-word elements—reflects Lunsford’s argument that writing is no longer confined to static text but must incorporate oral, visual, and interactive modalities.
Lyrically, “Fifth Canon Rising” reinforces Lunsford’s themes of performative rhetoric and evolving literacy. Lines like “No longer bound to pen and page / Words take flight, the digital age” capture her vision of writing as an active, multimodal process. The chorus, emphasizing “delivery redefined,” underscores her claim that delivery, long marginalized, has re-emerged as central to composition in the digital era.
Musically, the progressive rock style—fluid transitions, improvisational solos, and varied sonic textures—parallels Lunsford’s argument for adaptable composition practices. The song’s climactic convergence of musical themes metaphorically represents her vision of a composition pedagogy that integrates traditional and emerging rhetorical practices.
Ultimately, “Fifth Canon Rising” enacts Lunsford’s ideas, demonstrating how music, like multimodal writing, expands rhetorical meaning. By transforming theoretical discourse into a performative form, the song reinforces Lunsford’s call for composition to embrace multiple communication channels in an increasingly digital world.
[Verse 1]
No longer just the printed word,
Writing evolves, the lines are blurred.
A multimodal truth takes hold,
Epistemic, bold, and manifold.
Orality returns in force,
Performance charts a shifting course.
The fifth canon redefined,
Where body and medium intertwine.
[Chorus]
The fifth canon rising, breaking the frame,
Writing’s not static, it’s living, untamed.
From screen to sound, in modes it thrives,
Rhetoric reborn, where delivery drives.
[Verse 2]
A "sprite" of words, a rhythm flows,
Speech and text where meaning grows.
Not bound by paper, sound and sight,
Compose with presence, make it ignite.
Critical voices, layered and free,
Blend tradition with new literacy.
Secondary forms now claim their place,
Embodied rhetoric, a human trace.
[Chorus]
The fifth canon rising, breaking the frame,
Writing’s not static, it’s living, untamed.
From screen to sound, in modes it thrives,
Rhetoric reborn, where delivery drives.
[Bridge]
The writer adapts, the tools evolve,
Challenges new for us to resolve.
Teach them to draft, reflect, revise,
In media’s flow, new knowledge lies.
Not just PowerPoint, not just flair,
The craft of argument’s still there.
Persuasion lives where voices meet,
A web of meaning, complete yet fleet.
[Chorus]
The fifth canon rising, breaking the frame,
Writing’s not static, it’s living, untamed.
From screen to sound, in modes it thrives,
Rhetoric reborn, where delivery drives.
[Outro]
The canon is shifting—hear its call,
Writing’s future belongs to all.
A spark, a rhythm, a human art,
The fifth canon rising, where change will start.