steve jones,
from your previous posts -i think you're way ahead of me in being 'up' on theory - but, thought i'd mention that record covers can provide invaluable insights. west chester had a lot of old records and i'd look inside the covers for ideas about form and function of pieces. also, there's some polish site i found a couple times for some other people. i'll try to find it again. they might have something that chopin said himself about his own piece. and, i also have cortot's explainations of how to play that prelude. i'll look at his words tonight and see if he says anything. is this a project - or just a curiosity for you?
btw, do you teach theory? i mean at a school? i try to maintain the theory with piano level (performance) - but it really gets complicated, as you say. i feel it helps a teacher be confident of their quality of teaching if they CAN explain what's going on. susan
You know, when buying pop, etc, CD's I rarely check the inlay. But with classic ones they can be really good! So yeah, Id definately check the inlays if I could find the cases. Im a little disorganized at the moment... moving to another country in two weeks!

With respects to teaching...
I do teacher guitar privately. Nothing at school. My interest in theory is purely academic. I guess I may have a touch of OCD, lol. I just feel this need to understand the music Im listening too, why it has the impact that it does, etc.
My view of theory is that it should always work towards and understanding of the 'soul' of the music. Who it makes me feel a certain way. Why the composer chose certain techniques. What he was trying to tell me with the music.
One thing I like so much about Chopin (and a lot of Debussy) is how natural and uncontrived there music sounds. I never get the impression that Chopin's used a technique for anything other than an artistic end. A perfect example might be the octatonic passage of the etude Op 10 No 9. Here, the use of octatonic pitch material is PERFECT and sounds completely natural to my ears. Compare this to the 6th sonata by Scriabin - a work that, to me, sounds more like a musical experiment than anything with a clearly 'message' (not that I dont love it!).
So often, I tend to focus my analysis work on pieces like this one... where there is really something to debate (both internally and with others) regarding the presentation of harmony and melody, figuration, tonality and their implications with respects to the composer's 'communication'. I dont see the G minor prelude as just a bizarre and tonally daring experiment, rather as a piece with something to say.
If that makes sense

SJ