An overview of 20th century piano music through a model of the art process that focuses on the cyclical interaction between the artist subject, the artwork and the subject encountering the artwork: Connectional patterns in the voluminous works of Skryabin, Messiaen, Ives, Sorabji and Feldman

Humans create new objects by borrowing from the things that exist in nature and then add these back to nature. These objects, which are the product of human making, have been seen, categorized and interpreted differently throughout history. These differences have been tried to be explained with concepts such as the pleasing, the imitated, the intuitive, the genuine, the beautiful or the aesthetic; and finally, they have started to be handled under the concept of "Art". The difference of these human artifacts characterized as "Works of Art" stems from their ontological duality. These objects have both a sensory-perceptual existence and a human-specific nature. The "Work of Art" created by the "Artist Subject" as an expression of his/her special nature with materials borrowed from nature can find a space of existence again in a mind that observes it. The ontological duality of the Work of Art can be observed in a cyclical "Art Process" between the "Artist Subject", the "Work of Art" and the "Subject Encountering the Work of Art". Instead of trying to define art with a single meaning, this study deals with art as a "cyclical process" phenomenon with an axiomatic model. The presentation of such a model requires recourse to different disciplines. By utilizing the discipline of Art History and tracing what meanings have been attributed to art as a concept in the historical process, it will be possible to understand the nature of the Art Process and determine the axioms of the model. To understand how the Work of Art, as an object in the phenomenal world, is perceived by the "Artist Subject" and the "Subject Encountering the Work of Art" and how it transforms into a representation in the mind that observes it, requires recourse to the discipline of Phenomenology. The "Work of Art" is established as a constantly renewing field of possibilities in the mind that makes, creates and observes it. In order to explain the intricate relationship of the "Work of Art" with the process of the human mind within the Process of Art, it is necessary to utilize the discipline of Philosophy of Mind. There are many approaches that attempt to explain the working mechanics of the human mind. Neurons, which are thought to form the physical structure of the brain, dynamically connect with each other to form patterns. This approach, defined as connectivity, is based on the relationship between the parts and the whole. This research seeks to answer how there is a relationship between the patterned structure in the human mind and the patterns that arise from the "Work of Art" and turn into representation, based on the connectionism approach. Within the framework of the model to be put forward in order to explain and exemplify the cyclical "Art Process" between "Artist/Composer", "Work of Art/Musical Work" and "Subject/Listener Encountering the Work of Art", five monumental works of 20th century piano literature were analyzed: Aleksandr Skryabin's Ninth Piano Sonata, Olivier Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésus, Charles Ives' Concord Sonata, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum and Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories. Each work is analyzed with the aim of explaining and interpreting the ideas that shaped the composer's mental patterns and the interconnectedness of the representational patterns in the work. Keywords: Pattern, piano music, mind, connectivity, ambiguity